


Rulers of the Galaxy

by I_msorrymylove



Series: The Orbs Collection [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 11:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17000322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_msorrymylove/pseuds/I_msorrymylove
Summary: Peter and Ariel Quill, twins, were separated. Ariel went to the Dark Aster, and like her brother she grew up. Now, they are adults who do not know the other is alive, until they run into each other once more. Caught in a much bigger plot, the two will have to fight on opposing sides to protect what they care about. Ronan/OC. First of the Orbs Collection.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a copy of my work under the same name on fanfiction net.   
> Disclaimer: I do not own Guardians of the Galaxy or anything else related to Marvel.

**Earth, 1988**

Peter and Ariel Quill, twins at birth, sat next to each other in the waiting room of a hospital, an action they had done many, many times before. For the past months, the two had watched as their mother, Meredith Quill, succumb to brain cancer. The woman who had had brown hair like her daughter and the same eyes as her son seemed to vanish before the eyes of everyone who knew her, replaced by a bald woman with tired eyes.

The two were old enough to understand what was happening. Their mother was dying and would be dead very soon. That didn’t stop Ariel from hoping their mother would recover or Peter from fighting anyone would disagreed. Peter was fighting a lot lately. Even that afternoon Ariel had had to get a teacher because Peter had been hit soundly on his eye. He had been fighting because they had killed a frog.

Ariel looked down at her legs, which were still too short to touch the ground. She swung them, looking over at Peter. It was his turn to use the Walkman to listen to ‘Awesome Mixtape.’ She didn’t like it when it was Peter’s turn because she hated the hospital noises. She hated everything about the hospital, really. The way people whispered, the stale smell, the quiet footsteps…everything!

Most of all, she hated knowing that her mother was in the room nearby.

She looked up, hearing the sound of heavy footsteps. Her grandpa, the man who had been taking care of them ever since their mother got so sick, came hurrying towards him. She tapped Peter on the shoulder, making him frown and pull off the headphones.

“Peter, Ariel, your mama wants to speak to you two.” Ariel nodded wordlessly and got off the chair. She looked over at her brother to see him staring at their grandpa.

“Come on Peter,” Ariel said in a soft voice. Even though he was technically the older child, Ariel had found herself taking on a more mature role. A role that even Peter accepted, which he showed by getting to his feet.

The two were walked into their mother’s room by Grandpa, his hand on their backs in attempt to comfort them. Their mother looked up at them and seemed to smile, but she soon frowned at Peter’s eye. “Why have you been fighting with the other boys again, baby?” When Peter gave no answer to the question besides a shrug, their mother prompted with a gentle, “Peter?”

Peter frowned. “They killed a little frog that ain't done nothin'. Smushed it with a stick,” he admitted in a soft voice.

Their mother smiled. “You're so like your daddy, you even look like him,” she remarked breathlessly. She looked over at Ariel and added, “You’re so much like your daddy too, doll. You make the same faces.” She seemed to almost fall back into the bed. “And he was an angel, composed of pure light...” her eyes slid closed.

Grandpa leaned forwards, prompting their mother to open her eyes, though the action was slow and weak. “Mer? You got a present for Peter and Ariel, don't you?”

Their mother seemed to attempt to nod. “Of course. There.” She lightly touched, brushed really, two gifts with two cards attached to them. Wordlessly, Grandpa took the gifts and placed it into Peter’s and Ariel’s backpacks.

“I’ve got you covered,” he said in a soft voice.

Their mother smiled. “You open it up when I'm gone, okay?” she instructed. Peter and Ariel both looked down at that, unable to meet their mother’s eyes and unwilling to let her see them start to cry. “Your grandpa is gonna take such good care of the both of you. At least until your daddy comes back to get you two.”

She took a sudden raspy breath and looked over at Grandpa for a brief moment. Then she turned her head back to Peter and Ariel and held out both her hands. “Take my hands,” she said – asked, really.

Ariel took one of them gently, knowing something very bad was going to happen. She looked over at her mother’s face to see her frowning at Peter. “Peter,” their mother prompted.

Ariel frowned as well. “Peter, please,” she said in a soft voice.

“Take my hand,” their mother repeated.

But Peter never did – at least not until her heart stopped. As the heart monitor, which had been beeping slowly, turned into a long beep, Peter asked softly, “Mom?” When no response came, he grabbed at her hand, clutching it and screaming, “No!” over and over again.

Ariel backed up, unable to stop looking at her brother and her mother but wanting to desperately look away. She could only watch mutely as Grandpa grabbed Peter and carried him outside. He seemed to want to help her out as well, but Ariel walked behind him.

Placing Peter down, he beckoned Ariel over and looked them both straight in the eye. “You’ve got to stay here. Please,” he ordered.

“No,” Peter whimpered while Ariel just nodded.

Hearing the doctors run into the room, Grandpa turned away. The minute he had left them, Peter ran away. Not sure what to do, Ariel ran after her brother, kneeling down next to him in the field outside the hospital as he wept.

“No,” Peter repeated, leaning into Ariel’s arm around him.

A bright light like a spotlight appeared above them, making the two looked up in alarm and increasing fear. A spaceship was hovering above them.

As if on strings, the two were suddenly jerked into the air. Peter desperately hung onto Ariel and screamed out the name of the one person who had promised to always, always save them, a name that Ariel echoed as well – “Mom!”

But their mom did not come and instead they were pulled into a spaceship and taken away.

_“Peter and I were separated quickly after. He stayed with Yondu and I…I was sent to someone else.”_


	2. Chapter 1

Galaxy, once known as Ariel Quill, had grown in the twenty-odd years since she had her brother had been taken by the Ravager Yondu. Her hair had turned a darker, almost mahogany, brown. She had grown taller, now easily the same height that her mother had been. She had also changed during the time period as well. She once had worn pinks and greens and other soft colors, but now she stood in a black long sleeve shirt and a pair of dark jeans.

The only thing that hadn’t changed was her eyes. Throughout everything she had seen, her eyes, a dark brown, had remained the same. She was more than grateful for that. They were the only things that reminded her of her life before she and Peter had been kidnapped, before her mother had died.

 She stood in the throne room of the Dark Aster, the ship that she had been on since she was ten and Ronan’s father had bought her from a drunk Yondu. She had been dragged, kicking and screaming until her face hurt, onto the ship as her brother fought in a similar way.

She had hated everyone single person on the ship for taking her from the one family she had left, everyone except for Ronan, who was her age. He became her one friend, just as she became his. It was only natural that, when Ronan’s father was killed by Xandarians that she stood by Ronan, even if his actions made her uncomfortable.

It wasn’t until he had put an entire family to death did Galaxy find a voice to stand up to him. She had yelled at him for hours, not backing down when threatened to have _her_ killed. It wasn’t until she pointed out that he was becoming exactly like his father – he had even made a trade for Nebula and Gamora, two of Thanos’ daughters – did Ronan finally fall and admit that he knew what he was doing was wrong, that he wanted to stop, but he didn’t know how.

Galaxy’s response had been simple, “let me help.”

And she had. Ever since that night, Ronan had receded, had stopped his killings and had stopped sending Nebula and Gamora out for missions. They stayed in their tiny corner of the universe, receiving news at odd intervals.

In Galaxy’s opinion, Ronan had made strives to become better. Strives that proved he was still the boy she had become friends with. That proof had made it easy for her to accept a deeper, romantic relationship when Ronan had started it.

She smiled slightly, seeing Ronan come out. His Warhammer, once a constant companion, was no where to be seen. He appeared simple, relaxed. He had a small smile on his face as he walked towards her and gave her a small peck on the lips.

“Hello Galaxy,” he greeted.

“Hello Ronan,” Galaxy greeted back.

Her smile grew as Ronan took her hand and walked with her up to the throne. He took a seat while Galaxy stood next to him. They had discussed marriage, in any sense of the word, once, but Ronan had explained that the Kree’s form of marriage was as violent as their race, which was a very violent one. It was also, Ronan admitted, very physical as well, and they were not nearly in a place to become that physical.

In fact, Galaxy truly did not know _what_ place their relationship was. She supposed, had they been on Earth, they would only just have gone on a couple of dates, maybe even less. They had only started romantic involvement about three months ago, the day Ronan had found out Kree had brokered an agreement with Xandar.

He had been so angry, like many of his people, and had wanted to storm to their home planet and join in on the protests. But Galaxy had calmed him by placing her hand on his arm. He had looked over at her and, as he later described it, had a sudden urge to kiss her. So he did.

It was not, in any sense, the most romantic first kiss. But the memory still made Galaxy smile, not only because of the joy it brought her but also the pride in knowing just how far Ronan had come.

Once again, though, his progress was being tested. This time by a Xandarian, angered by the loss of his people by Ronan. He had come, boarding their ship an attempt to kill them, only to quickly be captured. They had been holding him for multiple days, Ronan unsure of what to do with the man.

On one hand, the man had come with the intent to kill when they had been peaceful, but on the other hand, he was angry and grief stricken because of actions _Ronan_ had committed.

He had ended up asking Nebula and Gamora, wanting to prove that he was better than his father and that he cared about their opinion, that he saw them as people and not just tools to use. They had both, after a lot of pushing, agreed with Galaxy – the man had to be let go.

“They still call me ‘terrorist,’ ‘radical,’ ‘zealot,’ because I once obeyed the ancient laws of my people, the Kree, and punish those who did not,” Ronan murmured to Galaxy.

Galaxy nodded. “You made them terrified,” she pointed out in a soft voice.

“I did not forgive Xandarians for taking the life of my father, and his father, and his father before him,” Ronan admitted. “A mistake that I will _not_ make again.” He turned to one of the guards and motioned at him, sending him to receive the prisoner.

It only took a few moments until everyone in the throne room, which included Gamora and Nebula, to hear the prisoner protesting against the guard dragging him to the room. The doors opened and all turned to look at the prisoner, a Xandarian that was quaking in fear as he was brought towards Ronan, who was, Galaxy would easily admit, a terrifying individual on his throne and in the traditional Kree robes.

“You can't do this! Our government signed a peace treaty,” the man squeaked in protesting.

Ronan seemed to stiffen slightly at the accusation, at the total belief that he was going to kill the man. It was another proof that he had made the right choice – the number one proof was Galaxy’s pride in him.

“That is why I _won’t_ be killing you. Though it is my right in both Kree and Xandar culture to kill those who come in an intent to harm me – which is still upheld in the peace treaty – I will be merciful.” He stood and walked down the steps until he was just one above the man. “You’re survival is a gift and warning. Should any come back to my part of the galaxy, where I rule, I will not be as kind.”

The Xandarian just stared mutely, his head bobbing in a fashion that reminded Galaxy of a bobble – head. He didn’t speak as he was lead away to a ship by the guards.

Relaxing once the man had left, Ronan looked over at Galaxy, who gave him a smile. He gave her a smile of his own, the relief of on his face clear. He walked back up to the throne and sat down in it heavily, allowing himself to relax as Nebula stepped forwards.

“Ronan, Korath has returned,” she reported in her metallic, robotic voice – a voice that still made Galaxy’s heart drop though she had heard it many, many time already. Thanos was a cruel, cruel man, a cruelty shown in his actions towards Nebula and Gamora.

She looked over to see a similar, pained expression on Ronan’s face. “Send him in,” he instructed Nebula, watching intently as she walked away.

“You are better than him,” Galaxy said in a soft voice, “Anyone can see that.”

Ronan gave her a grateful smile and gently took her hand to give it a soft squeeze. “Thank you,” he said in a low voice. Somehow Galaxy had always known exactly what he needed to hear when he was doubting himself, a sorcery he did not understand but greatly appreciated.

He looked up and away from Galaxy, though he still held her hand, as Korath was brought in. Like Gamora and Nebula he had been a gift from Thanos and was meant for missions. He was supposed to have an orb with him, but he was clearly empty handed.

“Explain,” he ordered, sending the man a hard look.

“There was someone else there, Master,” Korath reported. “A man. Master, he is a thief, an outlaw who calls himself Star-Lord. But we have discovered he has an agreement to retrieve the orb for an intermediary known as The Broker.”

But Galaxy had stopped listening long before Korath had finished. As soon as the man had said the words ‘Starlord,’ she had gone stiff. That was the name she had not heard since before her mother passed, a name that she had given her brother, a game that a pair of twins played in the southern afternoons.

Perhaps it was a coincidence. Starlord, after all, was not an original name by any means. There were likely hundreds of men who had dubbed themselves the same way.

Still, she found herself asking to Korath suddenly, “Was he a Ravager?”

Korath looked at her oddly before answering, “He claimed to be a junker, but he wore Ravager clothes.”

It took everything Galaxy had to not fall over, and even that was only achieved by gripping Ronan’s hand tightly. She knew her behavior had worried him; she could already feel his gaze flickering to her. But that was only secondary to the joy and the shock that she was feeling. Her brother was alive, her brother was okay, her brother still remembered his childhood…her brother still remembered _her._

She was only barely aware of Ronan assigning her to a mission to get the orb along with, after a small debate, Gamora. It was only when Ronan got up and asked her in a low voice whether or not she was okay did she come back fully to her sense.

“I’m fine,” she assured. “More than fine,” she corrected after a small pause.

Ronan frowned at her as they started to walk down the steps to leave the throne room. “What has made you ‘more than fine?’”

“The man Korath was speaking about, Starlord. I believe he may be my brother,” Galaxy explained.

“The brother that was taken by Yondu with you?” Ronan asked, his frown turning thoughtful as he remembered the stories Galaxy had told him late at night as children. “You were very fond of him.”

Galaxy nodded. “We were twins and he was my only friend,” she said in a distant voice. She stopped, turning to face Ronan directly. “If it is him and I were to run into him, I cannot lose him again.”

Ronan nodded, though he had a frown on his face. “Will you come back?” he asked.

“Yes,” Galaxy promised. “I will always come back.”

Still frowning, though it had lessened considerably, Ronan started to walk next to Galaxy, leading her to his rooms. She went inside without protesting, having already been there before. She went to her favorite seat, which was a small chair, and watched as he went to his dresser and pulled something out of his top drawer.

“This,” he started, turning to face her. “Is a communication device. Should anything go wrong, you just need to tap the big button and I will know exactly where you are.”

Galaxy got up from her seat and took the device from him. Its size was small enough that she could easily wear it on her wrist and slip it underneath her wrist. As long as no one looked at it intently, it could easily pass on for a watch.

She traced a finger over the front of it. “What if it gets destroyed?” she asked, feeling the cool glass underneath her fingertip.

“It will send me your location,” Ronan said. He raised the hand she was holding the device in and kissed her knuckles gently. “Come back safe,” he said in a soft, gentle voice.

Galaxy stepped closer, forcing Ronan to drop her wrist. “I will,” she promised. She leaned forwards and kissed him softly on the lips, barely suppressing a smile when he readily kissed back. She was unable to, however, suppress a smile when he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist. In response, she wrapped her own arms around his neck.

He pulled away, resting his forehead on hers. “You mean quite a bit to me,” he admitted.

“And you mean quite a bit to me too,” Galaxy responded.

Smiling widely, Ronan pulled her back in for another kiss.


	3. Chapter 2

**Xandar, Capital of the Nova Empire**

Gamora and Galaxy stood on Xandar, both scanning the crowd, though Galaxy could easily see Gamora frowning at her and flicking her eyes towards her. After the sixth time of seeing Gamora subtly looking at her, Galaxy asked, “Gamora, do you need to ask me something?”

Gamora sighed and turned towards Galaxy, not even pretending to look at the crowd. Galaxy did the same, staring intently at Gamora as she waited for the green-skinned woman to talk.

Finally, Gamora asked, “Why are you with Ronan?”

Galaxy blinked at the question, thoroughly surprised. She had expected Gamora to ask why she had been acting so odd lately, she knew she had been especially twitchy since they had landed.

“Ronan has been very kind to me,” Galaxy started, feeling awkward and knowing her cheeks were starting to redden. “I’ve known him since I was ten and his father bought me from Yondu-“

Gamora shook her head, cutting Galaxy off. “I know all that,” she pointed out. “I know he’s kind and I know you were childhood friends but…” her voice trailed off as she glanced around, as if suddenly wary of people listening in. “You’ve seen everything he’s done.”

“I have,” Galaxy agreed. “But I’ve also seen the way he strives to fix his past mistakes.” She looked out at the crowd, looking at the Xandarians, the men and women and children. “He’ll never be able to truly fix all he’s done, but he’s trying. I see it every single day and that means something to me. It proves he’s still the boy I grew up with.”

She looked over to see Gamora frowning in thought. Knowing Gamora had a tendency to think in silence for several minutes at a time, Galaxy scanned the crowd once more. Peter would stand out as a person who wasn’t yellow or pink, the majority of the skin colors on Xandar. He was also taller than the average Xandarian, which meant that Galaxy should have been able to see Peter easily.

But it had also been over ten years since she had seen her twin last, and just like she had changed, Peter would have as well. Without truly meaning to, she thought back to the child she had grown up with. Their mom had always said he looked so much like their father, but Galaxy had always thought he looked more like their mother. He had her hair, her smile, her laugh. The only thing Galaxy had was her eyes.

Eyes that were widening as they landed on a tall, male figure with sandy brown hair, Ravager red leather, and a smirk on his stupid face.

“I found him,” Galaxy reporting, pointing Gamora over to him when the green woman looked up from her thinking.

Gamora looked at Peter herself, frowning. “He’s taller than I expected,” she said in a low voice. “And he wears very distinctive clothing.” She turned away to look at Galaxy. “I should be the one to speak to him. He would react well to a woman stroking his ego.”

Galaxy swallowed hard, harder than she probably needed to. “I’ll stay nearby with a gun pointed at him. He’s fast so if it doesn’t work, don’t chase him, I’ll knock him out.”

Gamora’s brow furrowed slightly. “How do you know he’s fast?”

Mentally, Galaxy cursed. She hadn’t want anyway, save Ronan, to know about her relationship with Peter. It was private and something she needed to work on without everyone’s opinions on it. She hadn’t meant to slip, but with the ways memories were coming up she could easily remember chasing after Peter while their mother smiled after them.

“Aren’t all Ravagers fast?” Galaxy asked Gamora, trying to think quickly for some sort of cover. “Yondu would only take people who could run fast while being shot at. The training for that was very stressful.”

Gamora nodded slowly, seeming to buy what Galaxy had said. “I will keep that in mind.”

She turned back out to look at Peter, who was walking into the Broker’s store. “I should go down there.” She gave Galaxy a smile and then headed off.

Galaxy watched as Gamora stood outside the Broker’s store, leaning against the wall with one foot up. She had grabbed some sort of drink and was sipping on it, appearing as if she was a casual person. 

Pulling out the small gun she kept with her, Galaxy turned the dial to stun, staring down at the words. Ronan had given her this gun for her sixteenth birthday, the same night she first told him about Peter. Now she was going to shoot her own brother, her twin, to get a stupid orb for an evil man.

Not for the first time, Galaxy desperately wished for an uncomplicated life on Earth with her brother and their elderly mother. And not for the first time, she was pulled out of that wish by when she looked up just in time to see Peter get thrown out of the Broker’s shop. She shook her head in exasperation, knowing he hadn’t done his research and had brought up Ronan in a casual context.

She saw Gamora engage in a casual conversation with Peter, the green woman shifting her body language from bored to interested and, though it made her nauseous to think of this in the context of her brother, seductive.

Peter, of course, was interested in Gamora. Galaxy could see the same smirk he had gotten the time he tried to impress a girl who was thirteen when they were seven. He even had the same posture – trying to buff himself up and appear bigger. Just like when they were seven, Galaxy fought the urge to laugh.

That urge to laugh quickly died when she saw Gamora looked over in her direction and nod. She straightened, all humor forgotten, and drew her gun once again. She checked the setting, even though she knew it didn’t change, and then slowly lifted the gun, ready to fully aim it at Peter.

She frowned, more than a bit horrified at the situation. Her thoughts, all wildly trying to pull her attention away, boiled down to one question: _Am I really going to do this?_ She could almost, almost hear her mother’s voice when she had found them playing cop and robber against each other.

_“If you’re ever going to raise any sort of gun towards someone, you’re telling them that you’re okay with killing them.”_

She shook her head, as if that could somehow dissolve the growing guilt she felt. Their mother had been so angry at them for even pretending to hurt each other and had repeated the same sentence that night. 

It had also, Galaxy remembered with a wince, the first night she revealed her declining mental state to her children by telling them about their father.

_“He would have been so excited to be with you,” their mother had said in a soft voice, her eyes closed. She was sitting in between their bedrooms, allowing both twins to listen in. “But he had to go back to the stars – he said he had work to do.”_

Even at that young age she had been concerned about her mother’s words. She hated that she was right, that her concerns led to tests, which led to diagnosis, chemo, and then her death.

What would her mother say if she could see her two children now?

She closed her eyes, swallowing hard. She knew exactly what her mother would say, and that made it all the worse.

“I’m sorry momma,” Galaxy whispered opening her eyes and raising her gun. Peter and Gamora were still talking, but in a blink – and – you’ll – miss – it movement, Gamora grabbed the protective orb and kicked Peter in his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Peter, for his credit, responded quickly. He grabbed some sort of magnetic rope and threw it at Gamora, tripping her.

Frowning deeply, Galaxy raised her gun to shoot…and then someone tapped her on her shoulder.

“What?” she snapped, not turning around.

“Groot! You’re supposed to knock her out, not tap her on the shoulder!”

That complaint made Galaxy turn around. She had just enough time to open her mouth before the tall, tree-like creature in front of her, with an almost comical frown, hit her in the head. Her vision went black and she fell to the ground, losing consciousness as a bag was placed firmly over her head by the apologetic tree creature.


	4. Chapter 3

The Nova Corps were known for their efficiency in their justice department. Even most of the prisoners could agree that, as far as getting arrested and placed in jail for their crimes goes, the Nova Corps were the best. They were swift and, most importantly, they were fair.

Those two combinations made Galaxy frown. She was getting thrown in jail not for pointing a gun at someone, but for her connection Ronan. Her trial, if she could even call it that, had consisted of photos of her and Ronan shown to the judge. Gamora’s had been the same, though they also showed pictures of her with Thanos.

The worse thing was that that hadn’t even been an actual trial. The entire group of Gamora, Galaxy, Peter, and the two creatures that had tried to kidnap them all were informed that they would get an actual trial in two weeks. There they would find out how long they would stay in the prison. The first ‘trial’ had actually been someone agreeing that they belonged in prison. 

They had been swiftly placed in a line of processed criminals who had to be presented. For a world that claimed to be peaceful, Xandar had quite a few criminals, which allowed Galaxy to blend into the crowd. Their group was to be processed at the end, and Galaxy had no intentions of allowing Peter to see her.

She couldn’t think of a single thing to say. ‘I’m sorry for trying to stun you’ did not sound like the best way to great her twin. Nor did: ‘When we get out I’m going to call my very new boyfriend to grab us and you need to come with us.’

They were all lined up, watching as everyone was scanned behind a screen before getting shoved onto another line.  From her position in the back, Galaxy groaned. For a group that was supposed to be swift, their lines took a very long time to get through.

* * *

By the time the time Galaxy had been ‘presented,’ her feet hurt and she had a crick in her neck. All the criminals were shoved onto a transport ship that was headed for the Klyn, the high security prison of the Nova Corps. There weren’t any seats, just walls that allowed some sort of relief for aching feet.

Feeling stressed, Galaxy allowed her finger to run over the smooth glass face of the communicator. She was planning on contacting Ronan at Klyn, but the idea also made her nervous…more nervous than she cared to admit. She had faith in his change, in his want to be a good man, but that would all be tested horribly by a message to pick her up at the Nova Corps high security prison.

The only thing she was thankful for was the mass of people that hid her from Peter. She was suddenly very grateful for her darker hair and sharper face, two changes that allowed her to blend in with the criminals around her. At the very least, Peter would not get a good look at her.

The transport ship stopped with a jerk, sending several prisoners to the ground with strings of curses and groans. The guards paid them no mind, instead choosing to warn the ship that the last one out would face punishment. There was an unfriendly smirk on the guards faces as the fallen prisoners were nearly trampled on as they too tried to scramble to their feet.

They were forced into a line and ordered to head down a hallway to where they would receive their standard yellow uniform. The raccoon that had tried to kidnap Galaxy, and Peter apparently, had loudly told the tree-creature that followed him constantly that the best way to tell who people were in the prison was by looking at their pants, which had a sort of barcode on them that designated their crimes.

Not for the first time, Galaxy had frowned as she eyed Peter from the back. She had been ten when she last saw her brother, what crimes had he done during that period of time?

“I guess most of Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws, but these ones here, they're corrupt and cruel. But, hey, that's not my problem. I ain't gonna be here long. I've escaped twenty-two prisons, this one's no different. You're lucky the broads showed up, because otherwise, me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now, and you'd be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those Ravagers,” the raccoon informed Peter.

Galaxy watched as Peter stiffened slightly. “Broads?” he asked in clear surprise.

The racoon rolled his eyes. “Broads,” he repeated. “Ya know, the green one and the brown-haired one?”

Peter relaxed slightly. He looked over at Gamora and gave her a cocky grin. “I figured you didn’t work well with people,” he said. “Seeing as you didn’t work well with _me.”_

Gamora just shook her head. “I do not work with honor less thieves,” she corrected.

“If you say so,” Peter replied lightly. He turned back to the raccoon and shrugged. “I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years. I ain't about to be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon and two women.”

“Hold,” a guard order, stopping the line in its tracks.

“What's a raccoon?” the raccoon asked.

“’What's a raccoon?’” Peter repeated, “It's what you are, stupid.”

They stopped talking briefly as they were pointed down a hallway to, presumably, their uniforms.

The raccoon was the one that broke the silence first. “Ain't no thing like me, except me,” he stated rather proudly.

Shaking his head, an action Galaxy agreed with, Peter looked over at Gamora once more. “So, this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe. What is it?”

“I am Groot,” the tree-creature responded, making Galaxy jump in surprise at his sudden voice.

“So what?” Getting no reply from the tree-creature, evidently named Groot, he asked Gamora again, “What’s the orb?”

“I have no words for an honor less thief,” Gamora stated with a sniff.

Peter rolled his eyes. “And what about your friend?” He paused and looked around with a frown. “Where is she by the way?”

At the question Galaxy ducked her head, refusing to even look up at Peter. She still didn’t know what she wanted to say to him, and that meant hiding from him. She saw Gamora turn around to look at her, but a quick shake of her head was all the message Gamora needed for her to turn around and say to Peter, “She also has no words for an –“

“’Honor less thief,’ I got it,” Peter interrupted as he finished for Gamora with a shake of his head.

The raccoon sent an annoyed look at Gamora and Galaxy. “Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackeys of a genocidal maniac.” At their expressions of disbelief, he shook his head. “Yeah, I know who you two are. Anyone who's anyone knows who the both of you are.”

Peter nodded rapidly, a movement that made Galaxy’s heart twinge from remembered pain. He _always_ nodded like that whenever he was about to lie. It felt bittersweet to know that Peter had not changed much…but she had.

Would he even recognize her?

“Yeah, we know who you two are,” Peter agreed, his voice pulling Galaxy from her worries. She watched, smiling slightly, as he looked over at Groot and asked, “Who are they?”

“I am Groot,” Groot said as if it was an answer.

“Yeah, you said that,” Peter pointed out.

Gamora sighed and looked over at Galaxy, frowning. She seemed almost reluctant to turn to the raccoon and say, “I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan, I was betraying him.” Once more, the green-skinned woman flicked her gaze over to Galaxy, who’s expression had morphed from one of amusement to one of pain. “I had an agreement to sell it to a third party,” she admitted in a softer voice.

The raccoon smiled in a way that was almost too sarcastic. “I bet that just made brown-hair over there _real_ happy, considering her… _relationship_ with Ronan and all.”

“I am Groot,” Groot said in agreement.

Peter huffed in annoyance, and shoot Groot a look of pure exasperation. “Well, that's just as fascinating as the first eighty-nine times you told me that. What is wrong with Giving Tree, here?”

Realizing the conversation was no longer going anywhere remotely interesting, Galaxy allowed herself to tune it out as much as possible so she could think. She had known Gamora for about a year – a year that  Gamora had seemed happy about. There had never been any complaints or ideas…it made Galaxy frown. Sure, when Gamora had first been ‘borrowed’ by Ronan, Galaxy could easily understand her wanting to betray him – she had, though she hated to think about it now, wondered whether or not reporting his location to Xandar would do any good – but that had been months ago, and Ronan had come _so far…_ wasn’t Gamora able to see that?

She bit down on her lip and looked at the back of Gamora’s head. This was bad. Very bad. She was going to contact Ronan as soon as she could, but with Gamora’s announcement she would have to hide contacting him from her as well as everyone else. Galaxy could easily see the time extending to days, and, considering the reputation the raccoon had reminded her of, it wasn’t a complete assurance that she’d be all that safe.

She was forcibly jolted out of her thoughts when she ran into something large and wooden. She looked up in alarm to see Groot peering down at her. “I am Groot?” he somehow said in a question.

“Sorry,” Galaxy apologized, taking a step back. She turned her to gaze to reason why they had stopped walking and sighed in exasperation. “Really?” she whispered to herself.

Peter had stopped and had started to yell at a blue-skinned, large guard who was using. “Mom’s Walkman?” Galaxy whispered once more, this time in shock as she recognized the headphones one the guard. Even if she hadn’t seen them in twenty-odd years, she still remembered listening to the music, switching with Peter when her time had run out.

“You son of a...Hey! Listen to me, you big blue bastard. Take those headphones off. That's mine, those belong to impound. That tape and that player is mine!” While yelling at the guard, Peter had stormed into the room and had tried to appear as physically powerful as possible. That had been a mistake, because, seeing him as a threat, the guard poked him with some sort of stick that shocked Peter, sending a clearly painful electric current through him.

“ _Hooked on a Feeling_ , Blue Swede, 1973. That song belongs to me!” Peter ground out once the current was over. In clear reply, Peter was poked with the same stick, sending a longer electric current through him.

Galaxy winced, seeing the pain flash across her brother’s face. She turned away slightly, unwilling to see Peter in pain when she could do nothing about it.

* * *

After Peter had been kicked out of the room, without the Walkman, the group was forced again into a line. They were finally given the standard yellow uniform of the Klyn and ordered to change, women in one area and men in the other. Galaxy figured the men’s area was the same uncomfortable silence as the women’s area. No one looked at each other and instead turned to the wall. While they had been told they were welcomed to show, no one particularly felt up to it. Their person articles were rounded up by a young female guard and taken off in a messy bucket. Instead of leaving, the woman stood next to the older guard who had been watching them.

“Are there any other possessions?” the woman asked, her voice uncaring out of sheer boredom. When everyone shook their heads, she nodded. “The Klyn do not allow personal possessions. Should a prisoner be found with a contraband possession, they will be punished. Is that clear?” Her answer was wordless nods, which made the woman smile grimly. “I do not want to be here just as much as _you_ don’t want to be here. So play nice! I don’t want to have to deal with any of you more than I need to.”

With a huff and a look of extreme annoyance, she led the group of women outside of the room they had been in, mixing them back in with the men so that they were all in some sort of collection as they headed out to the rest of the prison.

The rest of the prison population looked up with evident interest in the group of new people. Gamora had, wisely, stepped back a bit from the front so she was closer to Galaxy, but that didn’t stop the two from getting noticed. Galaxy winced as she started to hear whispering from prisoners, who also started to throw sharp glares in their directions.

The tension grew until one man, his voice filled with rage, yelled out, “You first! You first!”

“Murderers!”

“Coming for you first, Gamora!”

“You're dead!”

“You're scum! You're scum!”

Sometime during the cries, food had started to be thrown their way. Gamora had gotten the brunt of it, but Galaxy had a sauce of some sort sliding down her cheek.

Gamora swallowed hard. “We should not linger,” she said in a low voice. Galaxy looked over to see her flicking her gaze to their cell, which was on the second floor. 

Galaxy nodded, frowning as she saw Peter looking around and then looking back at Gamora and herself. For a moment their eyes met, and Galaxy bit her lip, trying desperately not show any sort of recognition or familiar feelings or…

She cursed mentally as she saw Peter’s eyes widen. He took a small step towards her, his mouth falling open slightly in shock.

_“Ariel?”_ he whispered, in a voice so quiet that Galaxy knew only she could hear it.

Unable to form any sort of words in response, Galaxy could only nod. She watched as Peter start to smile, to take another step towards her…

And then the damned raccoon had to say, “It's like I said, they’ve got a rep. A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. They’ll last a day, tops.”

Peter turned on his heel, suddenly very, very angry at the prisoners glaring at them. When one of the shouting men called, “Murderers!” Peter turned his glare towards him.

Behind him, Galaxy could only shake her head. She had once seen Peter’s willingness to take on others as brave, but, especially in a situation such as this, she could only describe it as stupid. Thankfully, Peter didn’t run to the man and challenge him. He turned to the raccoon and asked, “The guards will protect them, right?”

“They're here to stop us from getting out. They don't care what we do to each other inside,” the racoon pointed out.

Gamora suddenly stiffened, the movement drawing Galaxy’s attention to her. She glanced over to see the green-skinned woman slightly turning her head, because behind her…Galaxy gulped.

“Whatever nightmares the future holds, are dreams compared to what's behind me,” Gamora said, a sentiment that Galaxy had to agree with.

The rest of the group turned, almost comically, and stared at the large, blue-skinned creature behind Gamora. He towered over them, his height nearly rivaling Groot’s. “ Check out the new meat. I'm gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly, and go to town...”

His threat was cut off by Groot inserting two of his twig-like fingers into the man’s nostrils and using them to painfully lift him into the air. The raccoon turned towards the rest of the prison, his eyes clearly on the group of men who had been watching their group almost hungrily. “Let's make something clear. This one here is our booty! You wanna get to him, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we go through you.”

Statement clear, Groot dropped the man on the ground, leaving him curled up in the fetal position and whimpering. The raccoon sauntered off, and Groot followed. Peter stayed behind, his gaze going to Galaxy. He opened his mouth, likely to demand they talk, but Gamora was suddenly at her side, placing a firm hand on her arm.

“We need to go,” she said urgently.

Galaxy nodded. She tried to give an apologetic smile to Peter before she and Gamora walked, trying not to hurry to the point where it looked like fleeing, to their cell. The other inmates continued to hurl their abuse and their food towards them, but it soon did not matter as they both sat down in the cell, the door closing and becoming a barricade.

And if Galaxy saw Gamora flinch when one of the men slammed his first against the door and say in a lower voice, “No cell's gonna protect you two for long,” then she did not say.


	5. Chapter 4

Galaxy did not speak very much to Gamora about what she had said earlier about the orb. She told herself that it didn’t matter because they didn’t currently have the orb, but she knew that was lie. It did matter because she had to Ronan at some point.

She was not looking forwards to that conversation. She hated to upset Ronan and betrayal like this would deeply hurt him – and what Gamora was doing was a betrayal, she had described it as that herself. The only hope Galaxy could cling to was what Gamora had said was a lie for show, to gain the others’ trust, but then she remembered the look Gamora had given her, and she knew that that was a false hope.

Her thoughts too busy to settle down, Galaxy did not sleep that night, which meant she was awake enough to hear the door to their cell open. Before she had a chance to say something to warn Gamora, she felt a male hand clamp over her mouth and two other hands drag her to her feet. She tried to struggle, to put up some sort of fight, but when she saw Gamora held in a similar position, she felt herself go limp.

As if to mock her, Galaxy thought she could hear the raccoon’s voice repeating ‘They’ll last a day, tops.’

The two were dragged down a hallway, the hand removed from their mouth but only after a sharp knife had been pointed at their throats. As they neared the stairs to the first floor, Galaxy felt hope flood her as she saw a prison guard standing by the stairs. But when he looked over, the hope drained away as Galaxy saw no concern in his eyes. “Take them down to the showers. It'll be easier to clean up the blood down there,” he instructed, sounding almost bored.

Gamora practically growled at the man, starting to struggle as they were led down the stairs. Galaxy tried to do the same, but she knew that if Gamora, who had gone through all of Thanos’ horrible training, wasn’t able to free herself then she would have no possibility. While Ronan had taught her some basic self-defense moves, they weren’t for a situation like this and it had always been understood that she would escape at the first chance.

They were completely helpless, Galaxy realized chilling as they were forcibly dragged into the showers and pressed, side by side, against a cold, white tile wall. For the first time in her life, the only thought Galaxy had was: I’m going to die.

The man who seemed to be the leader of the group stepped forwards with a knife, glaring at Galaxy in a horrifying manner. “Galaxy,” he hissed, “consider this a death sentence for your betrayal to the entire universe for consorting romantically with Ronan.”

Galaxy swallowed hard. She could hardly watch as the knife started to come slowly towards her neck. Just as she felt the cold, metal tip against her throat and the sting of a fresh cut hitting open air, a man entered the room, making the one with the knife turn around in evident annoyance, and anger, for the intrusion.

“You dare? You know who I am, yes?” the man asked, glaring down at the man with the knife.

“You're Drax, The Destroyer,” the man whispered in some sort of reverence.

Drax nodded. “And you know why they call me this.”

“You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions,” the man said in the same tone.

Drax turned towards Galaxy and Gamora and sent them a look that could be described as pure loathing. “Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed!” He turned back to the other inmates and regarded them with anger. “Their lives are not yours to take. He killed the woman I loved, I shall kill the woman he loved. He killed my daughter, I shall kill one of his.”

The man nodded shakily. “Of course, Drax. Here, I...” he handed the knife to Drax, the tip of the blade already blemished with blood. Her blood, Galaxy realized.

As Drax started towards them, Gamora suddenly kicked out, grabbing the other inmates’ weapons and holding them against the original leader and Drax while Galaxy, taking advantage of the sudden distraction, wormed her way out of the two men’s grip to kick them both soundly, causing both of them to fall to the ground with identical high-pitched whimpers.

Gamora glared at Drax and the other man. “I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos,” she said in a proud, steely voice. Very slowly, she took a step back and dropped the knives onto the ground, her hands raised in the air. “I'm your only hope at stopping him.” She swallowed and, flicking her eyes to Galaxy, she added, “We both are.”

In response, Drax lashed out and grabbed Galaxy by the throat and pinned her roughly against the wall. She gasped loudly for air, unable to focus on anything except for the sudden excessive need to breath.

“Woman, your words mean nothing to me,” Drax yelled over to Gamora, shaking Galaxy slightly as if to prove his point. Galaxy only clawed at his hand in response.

“Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!” At the voice, the familiar voice to Galaxy, Drax’s grip lightened enough that Galaxy was able to breath in a small amount of air, though it still truly wasn’t enough.

But, at the very least, Drax’s attention was now split between Gamora, Galaxy, and Peter.

“You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it,” Peter stated with a smile that even Galaxy thought was semi-friendly…until she saw the less than friendly look in his eyes.

Drax frowned. “Are you not the man these wenches attempted to kill?” He asked, once more giving Galaxy a light shake.

Peter’s reply came rather quickly, quicker than Galaxy had truly expected. “Well, I mean, they’re hardly the first women to try and do that to me.” He pulled up his shirt and gestured to a scar on his side. “Look, this is from a smoking-hot Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork. Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise.” Allowing the shirt to drop, he gestured towards a scar close to his throat. “I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. I was trying to get information. You ever see an A'askavariian? They have tentacles and needles for teeth. If you think I'm seriously interested in that, then...”

Peter’s voice trailed off, and Galaxy winced as the grip on her throat tightened once more, an evidence of Drax’s lack of attention. “You don't care. But here's the point. They’ve betrayed Ronan, he's coming back for them. And when he does, that's when you...” Peter drew a line across his throat slowly.

“Why would I put my finger on his throat?” Drax asked with a frown.

“What?” Peter blinked and stared down at his finger before he nodded slowly. “Oh, this is a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat,” he explained while doing the gesture again.

Drax just shook his head. “I would not slice his throat, I would cut his head clean off.”

“It's a general expression for you killing somebody,” Peter huffed in annoyance. He sent Galaxy an exasperated look, which she did not return. Shaking his head, he turned to the other man to do the same motion again. “You've heard of this. You've seen this, right? You know what that is.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” the man nodded.

Peter grinned triumphantly. “Everyone knows.”

And then Peter’s grin slipped off as the man suddenly, giving Drax a worried look, shook his head and said, “No, no.”

“What I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. And the other one. Don't do his work for him,” Peter said, his eyes going to Galaxy’s. He seemed to give her a cocky smile, as if to reassure her that everything would be alright.

Perhaps, if Galaxy were able to get a deeper breath in, she would agree. Instead, she could try to smile back weakly…and then she was dropped to the ground. She grabbed at the tiles underneath her hands as she gasped, scrambled really, for air. She was only vaguely aware of Drax heading off with the knife and the man sadly complaining about loosing the weapon before he went as well, leaving Gamora, Peter, the raccoon, and herself in the showers in an uncomfortable silence broken only by Galaxy’s gasps.

She looked up to see Peter kneeling down next to her, frowning. “You look horrible,” he said with a shake of his head.

Unable to answer, Galaxy held out her hand and Peter took it, helping her slowly to her feet. When she displayed a slight shake, he grabbed her by the waist and held tight. In response, Galaxy gave him a small smile.

“Thanks,” she wheezed out.

She looked away from her brother to see Gamora and the raccoon staring at them, their eyes wide, though Gamora’s were quickly narrowing into a glare as she eyed Peter’s hands.

“I would remove your hands from Galaxy if you want to keep them. I know of your reputation,” Gamora snapped.

Peter held up his hands wearily, though only after he gave Galaxy a quick once over to make sure she would be alright without his assistance. “I don’t recall my reputation involving incest,” he pointed out with a thoroughly disgusted look.

“Incest?” At Gamora’s question, and the look that accompanied it, Galaxy winced slightly. Peter had never had any sort of tact ever, and it seemed that that had only gotten worse as he had gotten older.

Her fear was proved when Peter scoffed and shook his head. “I’m not going to do anything with her. She’s my little sister.”

“Twin,” Galaxy corrected, even as she winced when she saw Gamora’s face flash with different emotions – shock, understanding, and then a painful smile. Her face settled just as quickly to a simple look and a nod. She didn’t say anything though, which made Galaxy look down, feeling guilt bubble up. She knew she should have told Gamora earlier when they were in the cell, but she was so busy thinking about Ronan that she just…forgot.

“We’re twins,” she said in a slightly louder voice.

Gamora nodded slowly. Galaxy had given her a brief explanation of her background – getting kidnapped by Yondu off of Earth and then getting sold by Yondu to Ronan’s father when she was ten – but she had never mentioned Peter, a decision she now regretted. Gamora had never given her a reason to not trust her, until recently, that is, and Galaxy had thanked that trust by omitting details. She knew that Gamora was wondering what _else_ Galaxy hadn’t told her.

Peter, however, seemed oblivious to Galaxy’s and Gamora’s thinking. In fact, he was _talking_ to Gamora, casually saying, “Just so you know, I could care less whether you live or whether you die.”

Instead of looking confused, Gamora just nodded. “You were saving your sister,” she stated.

“Yeah. And, _you k_ now where to sell my orb.”

At his words, Galaxy stepped away from Peter. “Your orb?”

Peter blinked and looked at her with a frown. “Yeah Ariel, _my orb.”_

Galaxy matched Peter’s frown with one of her own. “It belongs to Ronan,” she said in what she hoped was a steely voice. Judging by the way Peter was biting his cheek in an attempt not smile, she knew she had failed.

“It belongs to _no one_ while we are here,” Gamora cut across the twins in a tone of voice that _was_ steely. “How can you even discuss selling the orb when we and it are still here?”

Peter turned to Gamora and gave her an easy-going smile. “My friend Rocket, here, has escaped twenty-two prisons,” he said with a gesture to the raccoon.

The raccoon, Rocket, nodded. “Oh, we're getting out. And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty.”

“Yondu has a bounty on you?” Galaxy asked, looking over at Peter.

Peter nodded. “Long story, has to do with the orb,” he rushed. “How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my orb?” he asked Gamora, ignoring the glare Galaxy was sending him.

Gamora huffed and glanced over at Galaxy before she answered. “Four billion units.”

“What?!” Rocket cried out, his eyes widening.

“Holy shit,” Peter gasped.

Gamora nodded. “That orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan,” she explained. “If you free us, I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the three of us.”

Peter frowned and motioned to Galaxy. “There are four of us,” he pointed out.

At her addition, Galaxy took a rapid step back. “I want nothing to do with selling the orb,” she said. “I would rather give it to Ronan.”

While Peter looked like he was going to say something in very loud, very vocal protest, Gamora just held up her hand, cutting him off. “The profit will be split between the three of us,” she repeated.

“I am Groot,” Groot said suddenly, making the entire group, except for Rocket, jerk. Groot had _not_ been there during the fight earlier…or in the past couple of minutes. Galaxy crossed her arms as she eyed the tree-creature. How had even gotten over to them?

Rocket nodded quickly. “Four of us. Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual,” he finished with a grumble and a pointed look to Groot, which Galaxy could have sworn he returned.

There was a pause as the group in the showers fell silent. Finally, Gamora broke the silence by fixing them all, mainly Rocket and Peter, with a pointed look. “We will finish discussing this later,” she stated. She walked out of the showers, quickly followed by Rocket and Groot, leaving Peter and Galaxy alone.

For the first time in over ten years.

Peter suddenly stepped forwards and wrapped her into a tight hug. Galaxy hugged him back, smiling widely when she pulled back.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” Galaxy said in a small voice. “It’s been what? Ten years?”

“Twelve,” Peter corrected automatically. He frowned and crossed his arms, his brow furrowing. “Why don’t you go by Ariel anymore?”

Galaxy smiled slightly at the question. “It was Ronan’s idea,” she said wistfully. “He and I spent a year at this tiny planet and we didn’t really want them to know our names. I called him Milky Way and he called my Galaxy. It just ended up sticking.”

Peter gave her a small smile, though it was still tinged with his frown from earlier. “You really like this Ronan guy,” he remarked.

“Yeah,” Galaxy admitted. “He was there for me during the past years.”

Peter sighed. “All I’ve heard about him is that he’s killed a ton of people.”

“That’s true,” Galaxy agreed. “But he’s changed – he hasn’t killed anyone in a very long time. I know that isn’t a great marker, but you need to consider how his father raised him and the natural tendencies of his race.”

Peter just sighed and pulled her into another hug. “We need to head to bed. Let’s talk more tomorrow though.”

Galaxy nodded. “Sleep well.”

“You too.”


	6. Chapter 5

Ronan the Accuser stood in front of Thanos, painfully aware that he was before the man in submission. Nebula was off to the side, watching as she fixed a part on her arm with a screwdriver. Usually Gamora would be next to her, watching as well. Galaxy would also be next to them, dressed in something simple.

But this was not a usual visit to Thanos – if anyone could have a usual visit to the man in the first place. Gamora and Galaxy weren’t there. He had gotten word that morning that they were both in the Kyln. He had been…less than pleased. It had taken Nebula informing him that a call from Thanos had come through and he should want to go to it immediately to stop him from going to the Kyln that second and grabbing Gamora and Galaxy.

Then, as if the entire cosmos was trying to mock him, Nebula had informed him that sources from Thanos had revealed that Gamora had planned the entire mission to betray him! The only bright spot in that news was that Galaxy was still loyal, and had remained loyal even when Gamora was trying to broker a deal involving selling the orb.

Of course, Thanos had taken the opportunity to rub this betrayal in his face by setting up a video and had his servant, the Other speak to him. “You have been betrayed, Ronan,” the Other mocked.

Ronan crossed his arms. “We know only that she has been captured. Gamora may yet recover the orb,” he pointed out, having enough sense to not add Galaxy in with Gamora.

The Other sneered at him. “No! Our sources within the Kyln say Gamora has her own plans for the orb. Your partnership with Thanos is at risk. Thanos requires your presence. Now!”

As the video blipped out of existence, Ronan nodded to one of his servants. “Make the necessary preparations.”

While his ship traveled, Ronan had paced, asking Nebula questions about Galaxy. Her sources had very little on the woman, just that she was in the Kyln, clearly still loyal to him, and had been seen speaking intently to another male named Peter. Ronan had growled once the list had been given to him. Everything was things he already knew or had suspected.

When they landed, Ronan paused before he stepped out to meet with Thanos. He moved his hand down to his wrist and took off his way to contact Galaxy. The last thing he wanted was Thanos to grab it somehow. He had taken great pains to make sure that Galaxy had not attracted the attention of anyone he didn’t trust – especially Thanos.

He looked over at Nebula. “Do you trust these sources?” he asked in a low voice. “Would they ever mislead you about something of this nature?”

Nebula jerked at the question, as if she was shocked that he had even bothered to ask. “I don’t trust anyone,” she said. “But this is multiple sources saying the same thing.”

Ronan sighed heavily. “Lead the way,” he said enthusiastically, motioning to the door.

So Nebula had walked up to Thanos and stepped to the side while Ronan had stood in front of the man, waiting for him to speak. After several long, tense minutes, Ronan finally said, “With all due respect, Thanos, your daughter made this mess, and yet you summon me.”

“I would lower my voice, Accuser,” the Other snapped, glaring at him.

Ronan glared back at the servant, allowing his anger over the situation, over the danger Galaxy was in because _he_ had let her leave, to bubble to his surface. “First, she lost a battle with some primitive,” he started.

“Thanos put Gamora under your charge,” the Other responded.

“Then she was apprehended by the Nova Corps,” Ronan continued.

The Other sneered. “She was not the only one apprehended,” he pointed out.

Ronan tightened his grip on his Warhammer, trying very hard to not use it to take the Other’s head off. “Galaxy is not the one that your sources report plans to betray us the whole time!”

“Lower your tone! I may be your..” the Other’s voice cut off as Thanos, not even turning his floating throne of rock around, twisted his hand. The Other fell forwards, his neck snapped.

Ronan swallowed hard at the display of power. “I only ask that you take this matter seriously,” he said in his calmest, slowest voice as he addressed Thanos.

The throne of rock turned slowly until Thanos faced him, glaring down at him. “The only matter I do not take seriously, boy, is you. Your politics bore me. Your demeanor is that of a pouty child. And, apparently, you alienated my favorite daughter, Gamora. I shall honor our agreement, Kree, if you bring me the orb. But return to me again empty handed, and I will bathe the starways in your blood.”

Ronan nodded, floundering for something to respond with. He was thankfully saved from floundering by Nebula getting up from her seat, leaving the screwdriver behind, to address Thanos. “Thanks, Dad. Sounds fair.” She started to head to their ship, pausing to speak to Ronan before she left fully. “This is one fight you won't win. Let's head to the Kyln.”

* * *

**The Kyln**

Before anyone else were awake, Galaxy stood in front of Gamora. The two women had gotten a few hours of unrestful sleep before Galaxy finally asked if they could talk. Gamora had readily agreed and had even given Galaxy a small smile, as if she was trying to look approachable.

“Why are you betraying Ronan?” Galaxy asked immediately.

Gamora’s smile slipped for a very long second as she struggled to find an answer. “It’s not just Ronan that I want to get away from,” she started slowly. “It’s him and Thanos and,” Gamora shook her head. “I want to be free.”

“Free from what?”

“From this life!” At Gamora’s sudden raised voiced, Galaxy flinched back slightly. “I can’t go anywhere without the risk of getting caught because Thanos controlled my actions or Ronan controls them.”

“Ronan doesn’t control you,” Galaxy protested. “If you want freedom all you have to do is ask him.”

Gamora shook her head, a sad smile twisting her face. “He may invite our opinion from time to time, and he may give us a lifestyle far different than the one Thanos gave Nebula and I, but there is only one person who can challenge him like that.”

“How is requesting something a challenge?” Galaxy asked, her brow furrowing. “Even if he did see it as a challenge, he welcomes those –“

“From you,” Gamora finished. “Challenges are welcomed from you.”

Galaxy instantly shook her head. “Ronan welcomes challenges from everyone,” she protested. “If you had only brought up your feelings before this we could have worked something out.” She crossed her arms and looked down at the ground between them. “By Kree laws, he has the right to subjugate you to his ruling.” She looked back up at Gamora and sighed deeply. “You and I both know he’ll be coming for us soon.”

In response to that question, before Galaxy could even blink, Gamora lunged forwards and grabbed her arm in a vise-like grip. The green-skinned woman pulled up her sleeve to reveal the communicator. “Have you used this?” she asked urgently. When Galaxy did not reply, she repeated the question, just as urgently, but in a yell.

“I haven’t had a chance,” Galaxy admitting, flinching back from Gamora. “Even if I had it doesn’t matter, though. We both know how fast word travels and –“

“He’s keeping an eye out for your name,” Gamora finished slowly. She shook her head. “Damn.”

Releasing Galaxy’s arm, Gamora started to pace. “I don’t expect you to agree with my choice,” she started, “but please don’t stop me. I only want peace, not a war.”

Galaxy nodded slowly. “That’s all Ronan wants as well,” she agreed. “The only issue is Thanos.”

Gamora growled, actually _growled,_ at the mention of the man. “I will take care of him,” she snapped.

“What about the orb?” Galaxy asked after a wary pause.

Gamora sighed and sat onto the ground, her body far too tense to look remotely relaxed or comfortable. “Why does Ronan want it?”

Galaxy winced slightly at the question. “I do not know,” she admitted. “Ronan has only told me he has no plans to give it to Thanos.”

Nodding slowly, Gamora looked down at her hand. “I don’t know much about the orb, except that it is incredibly powerful.” She shook her head. “If Thanos were to get it…” her voice trailed off, leaving Galaxy to imagine the horrors that would happen.

“Why don’t we vow that whoever gets it, they make sure it does not get to Thanos’ hands,” Galaxy suggested tentatively.

Gamora nodded, smiling slightly at the request. “I can agree to that.”

Their vow made, Galaxy looked down at her wrist and sighed. “May I have the communicator back?

“Are you going to contact Ronan?” Gamora asked, her posture shifting back over to tense.

Galaxy shook her head. “Not until I get some sort of plan with Peter.”

Excepting the answer, Gamora got up to give Galaxy the communicator when, quite suddenly, their cell door started to open. Turning on her foot, Gamora slipped on the slick floor of the cell and fell heavily, a glass-shattering sound coming from underneath her.

Finding her feet, Gamora stood and looked down at the communicator which was completely shattered to the point of no repair. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized, holding it out to Galaxy.

Taking it gingerly, Galaxy looked down at the watch face. “It’s okay,” she tried to say in a reassuring voice. “At least you didn’t harm yourself.”

Gamora nodded. “I’m surprised it shatter so easily,” she admitted. “It seems pointless to make a communicator that can break if you fall on it.”

“It sends him my location if it breaks,” Galaxy admitted. “He knows I’m horrible at fighting.”

Gamora stared down at the communicator, tenser than before. “Would he come for you automatically?”

Galaxy bit her lip before she admitted, “He’s probably on his way already, never mind the communicator.”

Gamora took a step back and crossed her arms. “Will you go with him?”

“It depends on Peter,” Galaxy said with a shrug. “Ronan is aware that I’ll want to catch up with him and he’s fine with it as long as I come back.”

With an expression of clear disbelief, Gamora looked out onto the rest of the prison. She sniffed suddenly. “Breakfast is starting,” she reported. “That should give us an opportunity to speak to Peter.”

* * *

Gamora had grabbed a small fruit of some sort with a half-smile on her face before she hurried to a table near the back. Galaxy watched her go, noting that Rocket and Groot had joined her. She winced slightly, seeing Gamora stiffened when the two sat down.

Keeping an ear out for yelling from either of the parties, Galaxy scanned the room for Peter, and then smiled. She walked over to a male figure standing alone and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, jumping, only to relax and smile.

“How’d you sleep?” He asked casually.

“Not great. You?”

“About the same.”

The siblings eyed each other out of the corner of their eyes, both trying to assess if the ‘not great’ sleep had lasting effects. Both seeing nothing, they went back to scanning the food in front of them.

“Remember when Mom would make pancakes?” Peter asked suddenly.

Galaxy nodded, a small smile growing on her face as she remembered. “She would get flour everywhere.”

“They tasted good though,” Peter responded with a shrug.

Galaxy looked over at Peter, following his gaze onto a pair of pancake-like food. She walked over slowly and touched one. The texture was firmer, almost crisp and, when she inhaled, she couldn’t help but smile at the nearly familiar smell.

She picked up two of them and walked over to Peter. “Gamora got a table for us. Rocket and Groot are already there.”

Eyeing the plate almost suspiciously, Peter followed Galaxy through the crowds of people until they reached their table and sat down at it.

Rocket, who was nibbling on something that looked like a fruit, did not look up at them until the two were settled. He shook his head. “You two are just _too_ cute,” he snapped in a sarcastic tone. “Ten years apart and you’re already sharing food.”

Gamora gave Rocket a glare. “Tell them what you were telling me before they got here,” she ordered. When Rocket seemed to try and protest, Gamora just leaned forwards.

Rocket shook his head. “If we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna need to get into that watchtower,” he said grudgingly. “And to do that I'm gonna need a few things. The guards wear security bands to control their ins and outs. I need one.”

“Leave it to me,” Gamora said, already eyeing one of the male guards.

Their table fell silent when another prisoner, one of his legs metal, walked past them. Rocket watched the man as he went before he turned his gaze and attention to the rest of them. “That dude, there. I need his prosthetic leg.”

“His leg?” Peter’s question, echoed by Galaxy’s own thoughts, made Rocket smile.

“Yeah. God knows I don't need the rest of him. Look at him, he's useless.”

Galaxy glanced over at Peter, her own confusion mirrored on his face. He shook his head. “Alright,” he agreed slowly.

Rocket turned to Galaxy. “Are you coming with us?” He asked, crossing his arms. “Because if so you need to make yourself useful too.”

Galaxy glanced over at Gamora before she nodded. “I’ll come. But I am _not_ selling the orb nor am I taking part in selling it.”

Rocket just shrugged. “Your loss.” He turned to point to the main guard tower which was strategically placed in the middle of the prison. “And finally, on the wall back there is a black panel. Blinky yellow light. Do you see it?”

The entire group turned to look at the box. “Yeah,” Peter said, squinting slightly.

“There's a quarnyx battery behind it. Purplish box, green wires. To get into that watchtower, I definitely need it.”

The group swiveled back around, allowing Galaxy to see the frown on Gamora’s face when she asked, “How are we supposed to do that?”

Rocket pointed at Galaxy. “Well, supposably, these bald-bodies find you attractive. So, maybe you can work out some sort of trade.”

Galaxy stared at Rocket, her mouth dropping open. She could feel Peter shaking beside her. Underneath the table, she kicked him hard, making him yelp out and hold his hands up in a mock surrender. “Attack him!” he protested.

“You’re joking,” she decided, eyeing Rocket.

“No, I really heard they find you attractive.”

She gestured over to the black panel. “Look, it's twenty feet up in the air, and it's in the middle of the most heavily-guarded part of the prison. It's impossible to get up there without being seen.”

“I got one plan, and that plan requires a frickin' quarnyx battery, so figure it out! Can I get back to it? Thanks.” The rest of the group fell silent as Rocket started to explain once more. “Now, this is important. Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so you definitely need to get that last.” The alarm suddenly went off, causing the group to look up to see…“Or we could just get it first and improvise,” Rocket finished, not even appearing surprised to see Groot at the panel, digging in to find the battery while the prison went into shutdown around him.

“I'll get the armband,” Gamora stated, already in the process of getting up from the table.

Galaxy and Peter exchanged quick looks before Peter nodded and said, “Leg.”

Getting up from the table, the twins ran through the crowd, Galaxy falling behind as she had to go around most of the people while Peter just barreled through with no regard.

“What cell did he go into?” Peter yelled back, coming to a halt as he scanned the many, many rows of cells.

“Up and to the left!” Galaxy yelled back, pointing to the cell on the floor above him where the man’s metallic foot was resting.

The two ran up the stairs and to the man, Galaxy falling against the wall while Peter, gasping for breath, pointed at the leg and panted, “We need that.”

“You need my what?” the man snapped.

“We’ll pay you for it,” Galaxy promised. Peter sent her a very displeased look as he nodded too.

The man crossed his arms. “Thirty thousand units.”

“What?!” Peter cried out at the same time of Galaxy’s firm reply of, “We’ll do it.”

Ignoring Peter, the man turned to Galaxy. “Thank you,” he said curtly. He bent over and slowly undid his leg. He held it out, unattached, to Galaxy.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the leg. Nodding to Peter, the twins ran back to the stairs.

“Where’s the money coming from?” Peter yelled his question.

“Ronan’s personal account,” Galaxy yelled back.

The twins continued to run, aiming for the stairs, when a guard suddenly came towards them. “Drop the leg! Drop the leg and move back to your cells!” the man yelled.

Taking a step back, Galaxy started to raise her arms, as if to surrender. Seeing the guard start to relax slightly, she used the leg to lash out, hitting the man in the head and sending in a knocked-out heap to the floor.

Peter, lunging forwards, grabbed the man’s guns to shoot at a security droid coming towards them. Grabbing Galaxy’s free hand, he pulled her with him to a sprint as they made it over to Rocket, Groot, and Gamora.

“Move to the watchtower!” Rocket ordered from atop of a very proud looking Groot.

Not needing to be told twice, the group started to head to the watchtower, which stood proudly above the entire area. the five of them each starting to climb as soon as possible. A whirling sound came from overhead, which Galaxy ignored until she heard the whirling sound grinding to a halt.

“You! Man who has lain with an A'askavariian!” Drax yelled, landing with a thud that shook the ground near him.

Galaxy heard Peter grumble from behind her, “It was one time, man.”

The group, Drax now included, walked to the door and watched as it slid open, revealing a very frightened guard who instantly put his hands in the air. Groot just strolled over, picked him up, and threw him out of the window.

The watchtower was very crowded as they all packed in, leaving little room for anyone. As if fate was laughing at them, Galaxy bit her lip as she saw Gamora and Drax end up standing across from each other, and, of course, Gamora instantly noticed the addition.

“Spare me your foul gaze, woman,” Drax spat, seeing Gamora’s gaze on him.

Gamora shook her head. “Why is this one here?” she asked the room at large.

Peter winced at the question. “We promised him he could stay by yours and Galaxy’s side until he kills Roro-“

“Ronan,” Galaxy interrupted to correct him.

Peter waved in her general direction. “I always keep my promises, when they're to muscle-bound whack-jobs who will kill me if I don't,” he said in a cheerful voice.

Galaxy just sighed. “It’s pointless to argue,” she informed Gamora. She threw the leg over to the left of Rocket. “We got it.”

Rocket stared down at the leg and started to laugh. “Oh, I was just kidding about the leg. I just need these two things.”

“What?” Peter and Galaxy snapped together, which only made Rocket laugh harder.

“No, I...I thought it'd be funny. Was it funny? No, wait, what did he look like hopping around?”

“I had to transfer him thirty thousand units!” Galaxy protested.

Rocket shook his head, still laughing to himself. He knocked the leg off the controls as he started to busy himself with it, humming loudly as he worked.

“How are we gonna leave?” Drax asked loudly, his voice just bubbling with built up rage.

“Well, he's got a plan. Right? Or is that another thing you made up?” Peter snapped at Rocket, crossing his arms.

“I have a plan! I have a plan!” Rocket reassured.

“Cease your yammering and relieve us from this irksome confinement,” Drax ordered, glaring at the entire group, though special attention was given to Galaxy and Gamora.

Peter just nodded, not affected by the glares. “Yeah, I'll have to agree with the walking thesaurus on that one.”

Drax turned onto Peter, giving him a hard glare. “Do not ever call me a thesaurus.”

“It's just a metaphor, dude,” Peter said, eyeing Drax warily.

Galaxy shook her head. “His species is literal. He won’t understand a metaphor, it’ll go over his head,” she explained to Peter, who nodded slowly.

“Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it,” Drax announced proudly, giving Galaxy a glare for even suggesting the idea.

Gamora raised her fingers to her forehead and shook her head. “I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy.”

Ignoring her, Peter leaned forwards to look out the windows of the tower, frowning as saw the guards surrounding it with very large guns. Circling above them were the security droids, which also had guns. “Those are some big guns.” He warned, glancing over to see Rocket still working at the same pace as before.

From outside, Galaxy could hear the head of the guards yell, “On my command! Number one!”

The man on their far left fired, his bullet hitting the glass of the watchtower on Peter’s and Galaxy’s and Drax’s side. Galaxy looked up warily to see that the glass was still intact.

“Rodent, we are ready for your plan,” Gamora growled, leaning forwards so she could watch Rocket work.

For his part, Rocket had started speeding up even before Gamora had snapped at him. “Hold on!” He snapped back.

“Number two!” the head guard yell. A bullet from that man’s weapon hit the watchtower’s center panel.

“I recognize this animal. We'd roast them over a flame pit as children. Their flesh was quite delicious.” Drax said suddenly in a rather jovial tone as he eyed Rocket.

“Not helping!” Rocket snapped at the man.

“Number three!” Yet another panel was hit on Gamora’s side of the tower, and this time, the window cracked ominously. Everyone except for Rocket turned to see a long line formed on the glass, but it didn’t shatter. “All fire on my command!”

Galaxy spared a glance from Rocket’s fast moving hands to look over at Peter. His eyes were closed and he had turned a sickly white. She gently reached over to take his hand, only for him to pull it away and jump back, wide-eyed and mouth open. He looked horrified to see her for a moment before he seemed to shake himself out of whatever daze he was in and give her a cocky smile.

“We’ll be fine,” he reassured in a low voice.

Galaxy nodded, glancing down at the hand that Peter did not take.

“Three! Two! One!” Just as the last number was called out, Rocket triumphantly flipped a switch that made the entire building shake around them. Losing her feet, Galaxy grabbed onto Rocket’s chair. The moment it took to compose herself allowed her to look out the windows ahead very clearly. At the sight, she felt her jaw drop.

“You turned off the artificial gravity, everywhere but in here,” Gamora said in an awed voice as she too looked out the windows.

Outside of their watchtower, the guards were floating, trying desperately to scramble to some sort of railing. If Galaxy looked close enough, she could see several of the prisoners floating out from their cells as well, which just added to the chaos as the guards started to yell at them.

“I told you I had a plan,” Rocket boosted. He hit another lever and the watchtower shook again. There was a sound underneath them and suddenly they too were floating. He somehow attached the security droids to the base of the tower and used them to fly the watchtower out of the main prison area and too a hallway.

“That was a pretty good plan,” Peter said with a shake of his head as the watchtower grinded to a halt just outside the room with their personal possessions in it.

The doors slid open, allowing the group to clamber out and grab their items. While everyone else went through their items, Peter hastily grabbed his before he started to look around until he whooped. “Yeah! There it is. Get my ship. It's the Milano, the orange and blue one over in the corner,” he explained to Rocket while pointing at the ship.

Rocket, however, wasn’t paying attention. “They crumpled my pants up into a ball. That's rude! They folded yours.”

As if realizing he hadn’t gone through his bag, Peter looked down to see that his pants were folded up. Underneath them was the orb but…he shook it, nearly dumping everything out.

Gamora, who was leaning over Peter’s shoulder, just shook her head. “The orb's there. Let's go!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Peter said hurriedly. He shook the bag again and then huffed.

“What?” Galaxy asked, frowning at the face her brother was making.

“That bastard didn't put it back,” he snapped.

Galaxy’s eyes widened. She grabbed the bag from Peter and looked for herself. There was no Walkman with orange headphones. She handed it back to Peter. “Let me help,” she offered, a determined look forming on her face.

Peter quickly shook his head. “You physically can’t.” As Galaxy frowned at his answer, Peter handed the bag over to Gamora. “Here. Get them to the ship, I will be right back.”

Gamora took the bag and passed it over to Galaxy so she could follow Peter to ask, “How are you gonna possibly...”

“Just keep the Milano close by. Go. Go!” His yell still ringing in their ears, Peter headed off, leaving the group to stare at each other.

* * *

It was far too easy to board the Milano; it wasn’t even surrounded by guards! Rocket had happily made himself at home in the front while Gamora took a seat gingerly to Galaxy’s right. Groot and Drax towered in the back.

Far too many minutes had gone by, long enough that Galaxy knew the guards were likely coming to them now. It wasn’t like the watchtower was parked in an area that they wouldn’t find. Plus, there was no way he could even get to them! The Milano was floating in space.

“Well, how's he gonna get to us?” Rocket snapped at Gamora and Galaxy, giving them both glares.

“He declined to share that information with me,” Gamora snapped back. She gestured over to Galaxy as she added, “Or her.”

Drax nodded in approval. “He is wise not trust women such as you.”

Galaxy swiveled around in her seat. “Will you please shut up,” she snapped.

Drax frowned. “What does ‘shutting up’ have to do with this man not trusting you?”

Growling in frustration, Galaxy swiveled back around, trying very hard to pretend that Drax was not behind her.

Several more minutes went by, long enough for Rocket to snap, “Well, screw this, then! I ain't waiting around for some humie with a death wish. You got the orb, right?”

Gamora, not even waiting for Galaxy to protest, grabbed the bag from her and nodded. “Yes,” she informed Rocket as she started to dig through it.

“No,” Galaxy corrected, just as Gamora’s hand came out of the bag with no orb in it.

While Rocket forcibly slammed the heel of his hand into his forehead, Gamora turned to stare at Galaxy, incredulous. “You knew?”

Galaxy shrugged. “He’s my brother; I knew there was a possibility.” She started to smile as she took the bag back. “He pulled that trick a lot when we were younger.”

Gamora threw her hands up into the air, shaking her head furiously. “Now we can’t leave!”

“If we don't leave now, we will be blown to bits,” Rocket protested.

“No! We're not leaving without the orb,” Gamora ordered, crossing her arms.

Galaxy sent the two a glare. “Never mind about the orb. We are _not_ leaving without Peter.”

Drax suddenly leaned forwards, his arm reaching out to point a small but fast moving object headed towards them. “Behold.”

Galaxy jumped to her feet as she followed the object, a smile forming as she recognized Peter’s Ravager clothing. He was wearing a metal mask with red glowing eyes, allowing him to breath in space.She scanned the ship until her eyes fell onto a hatch. Running over to it, Galaxy waited until Peter knocked on the door before she opened, helping him in along with Gamora.

Drax, who had not helped Peter climb him, made his way over and gave him a hard pat on the shoulder as Peter hit something just behind his ear, making the mask he was wearing slid off and disappear to the spot he had hit.

“This one shows spirit. He shall make a keen ally in the battle against Ronan,” Drax said in a proud voice. “Companion, what were you retrieving?” Still in his hand, Peter held up the Walkman. Drax stared at it for a long moment before he shook his head. “You're an imbecile.”

“No he isn’t!” Galaxy snapped. She took the Walkman from Peter and held it staring down at it. “I can’t believe it still works.”

Peter gave her a genuine, if tired smile. “I think it’s your turn.”

Galaxy smiled back. She placed the orange headphones over her ears and pressed the play button.


	7. Chapter 6

Galaxy yawned as she woke up from the nap she had been taking. She could only bare to listen to one of the songs on the Walkman before she handed it back to Peter with a frown. He didn’t seem all that shocked that she had already returned it, just checked which track it was and nodded. He had pointed her to the sleeping area, practically ordering her to nap. Galaxy had not protested.

She checked her watch, frowning as she saw it had been two hours since she was awake. Usually she didn’t nap for so long, but then again, she mused, usually she hadn’t broken out of prison. Though even when she was sick, Ronan would have to wake her from a five-hour nap.

Her frown deepened as her thoughts turned to Ronan. He was probably close to arriving at the Kyln and when did arrive, he would expect to see her. While she knew he would be extremely angry at the Nova Corps for failing at keeping someone in prison, she also knew that some of that anger was just masking his worry he would feel over her.

She got up slowly from the bed, shaking her head in an effort to dispel her thoughts about Ronan. She walked over to the ladder that led to the upper part of the ship and climbed up, her head poking out just in time to see Rocket rip up a huge section of the floor to get at the wires underneath.

“Rocket?” Galaxy asked, hurrying to get off the ladder in case he ripped that one up next. “What are you doing?”

Rocket motioned to a black box with wires hanging out of it. “What does it look like? I’m building a bomb.”

“A what?” Galaxy asked, her voice raising in pitch as she scurried away from the bomb. “Does Peter know?”

In answer to her question, Peter stormed over, staring down at Rocket. “Woh, woh, woh! Yoh, Ranger Rick! What are you doing? You can't take apart my ship without asking me! See - what is this?”

“It’s a bomb,” Galaxy answered for Rocket.  “Don’t touch it,” she added in case Peter wasn’t over wanting to touch anything that was dangerous or explosive.

Peter just rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t going to touch it,” he grumbled even as he took a couple of steps back. He turned back to Rocket, crossing his arms as he addressed the raccoon. “You’re leaving that lying around?”

“I was gonna put it in a box,” Rocket protested lightly.

“What's a box gonna do?” Peter pointed out.

Choosing not to answer, Rocket took out two identically-wrapped boxed, each with a little stick on bow on top. He shook them both lightly. “How about this one?”

Peter lunged forwards and snatched the boxes away, all the while protesting, “No! Woh! Hey! Hey! Leave it alone!”

Rocket easily gave the boxes up, watching in amusement as Peter cradled them to his chest. “Why? What is it?”

“Shut up,” Galaxy snapped at Rocket. She walked over to Peter and took one of the boxes from him, the one with a pink bow on it. “You never opened them?” she asked in a lower tone.

“Yondu would have taken it,” Peter explained with a shrug. 

“He never took the Walkman,” Galaxy pointed out. She grabbed the Walkman from Peter and opened the back, frowning as she looked down at two oddly shaped cylinders. “What are these?”

“Batteries from the Sovereign. Yondu gave them to me after you…”

“Got sold to Ronan’s father,” Galaxy finished. She closed the back of the Walkman and handed it back to Peter. “He favored you, you know.”

Peter shook his head, frowning at the mere suggestion. “He threatened to have me eaten! He favored you.”

Galaxy’s frown twined her brother’s as she too shook her head. “He kept you with him and sold me to a warlord!”

Peter crossed his arms. “Did the warlord threaten to eat you?”

“No,” Galaxy admitted. “But the selling part is a bit worse.”

Peter had to nod at that. “He told me once he thought you’d be safer with them,” he said suddenly.

Galaxy frowned, her brow furrowing. “He thought I’d be safer with Ronan’s father than with my own brother?” she confirmed, shaking her head at the idea. “Why?”

“You know how some of the men were,” Peter pointed out. “Some of the men were just…” he shuddered. “I would hear them arguing with Yondu, about how he was protecting you so much and how-“

Galaxy cut him off by holding up her hand, her face paling. “I understand.” She frowned as she crossed her arms. “What happened after I was gone?”

Peter shrugged. “Some men left because they disagreed. Yondu started training me to go on missions with him.”

A conversation coming to her suddenly, Galaxy frowned. “Doesn’t Yondu have a price on your head?”

Peter did not look pleased, or impressed, at the conversation turn. “That doesn’t matter,” he tried to brush off.

But Galaxy just crossed her arms and gave him her best glare. “Peter,” she started in a chastising tone. “If we’re about to go out in public somewhere I think it’s important that I know why the man who kidnapped us is pissed off!”

Peter huffed. “I stole the orb and didn’t give it back to him.” He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” Galaxy repeated. When Peter nodded, she just shook her head. “We already have the Nova Corps looking for us, and now we have Yondu as well.”

“What about your man, Rowrow or-“

“Ronan,” Galaxy corrected, “And he’s probably the least likely to kill us-“

“Ha!” At Drax’s sarcastic laugh, Galaxy closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and started to count to ten very slowly in her head. “Ronan is a murderer who will stop at nothing to kill every single person in the galaxy.”

Her counting failing, Galaxy gritted her teeth. “I am not having this conversation,” she said. With a shake of her head, she walked away from Peter, as Drax started to rant about how Ronan, Gamora, and herself were going to kill them all.

She walked over to the front of the ship to see Gamora standing by the windows, watching with no interest as the stars passed them by. Even though Galaxy didn’t announce herself, Gamora still knew she was there and gave her a friendly, but very distant, smile.

“Where are we headed?” Galaxy asked, joining her friend to look out the window.

“Knowhere.”

Galaxy frowned. “Okay?” her brow furrowed as she took a slight step back from Gamora. Usually the green-skinned woman didn’t reveal her plans to anyone, but that had never fully extended to Galaxy, and it stung.

“Knowhere is a very filthy place. Ronan would be furious knowing I’m taking you there,” Gamora elaborated suddenly.

Galaxy blinked, clarity dawning on her as she turned to look at Gamora. “It’s actually called Knowhere?” she asked.

Gamora nodded, frowning. “Yes – it’s an asteroid that is home to some of the worst activities. The people like to call it ‘Knowhere’ because it doesn’t exist.”

There was a sudden ripping noise behind the two women, cutting Galaxy’s reply off and making them turn just in time to see Peter heading towards Rocket, yelling “Hey!” in protest. He stopped short and pointed at something behind the raccoon. “What is that?”

“That's for if things get really hardcore. Or if you wanna blow up moons,” Rocket said with a grin that showed just one too many teeth to not be considered predatory.

Shaking her head, Gamora walked over. “No one's blowing up moons,” she ordered firmly.

“You just wanna suck the joy out of everything,” Rocket complained even as he continued to smile.

Rolling his eyes, Peter turned to Gamora. “So, listen, I'm gonna need your buyer's coordinates.”

Gamora crossed her arms. “We're heading in the right direction, for now,” she informed him. Giving a pointed look to Galaxy, she walked back to the front of the ship and idly picked up the orb, keeping a possessive hold on it.

“If we're gonna work together, you might want to try trusting me a little bit,” Peter suggested with just a hint of an actual frown.

“And how much do you trust me?” Gamora countered, raising an eyebrow.

Peter shrugged. He took the orb out of Gamora’s hand and held it, looking at it intently. “My sister trusts you,” he pointed out with a slight gesture to Galaxy. “Though I’d trust you a lot more if you told me what this was. Because I'm guessing it's some kind of weapon.”

Gamora frowned. “I don’t know what it is,” she admitted, though by the way she was tensing around it, Galaxy could tell she did not trust the orb.

Nodding to himself, Peter placed the orb onto the table, giving Drax the opportunity to pick the orb up and hold it tightly while glaring at Gamora and Galaxy. “If it's a weapon, we should use it against Ronan,” he suggested loudly.

“Put it down, you fool! You'll destroy us all,” Gamora snapped at him, taking a small step forwards as if to knock the orb out of Drax’s hand.

The move just made Drax grip the object tighter. “Or just you two murderesses!”

“I let you live once, princess!”

“I am not a princess!”

“Hey!” Peter interrupted, standing in between Gamora and Drax. “Nobody is killing anybody on my ship! We're stuck together until we get the money.”

Drax frowned and tossed the orb at Peter, who lunged and caught it. “I have no interest in money,” Drax said as he walked off into the rest of the ship.

Peter watched him go, frowning slightly before he turned back to the rest of the group with a smile. “Great,” he said in a slightly sarcastic tone. “That means more money for the four of us,” he finished with less sarcastic bite and a clap of his hands. Nearby, Groot made a noise, which made Peter roll his eyes. “For the five of us,” he corrected. “Partners.”

Galaxy frowned. “I refuse to take part in selling the orb,” she reminded Peter. “I would never do that to-“

“Rowrow, got it,” Peter cut off.

Galaxy just closed her eyes and pinched at her nose. “It’s Ronan,” she corrected in a very slow, very controlled voice. Shaking her head, she stepped back.

Peter just turned to Gamora, who was just watching the siblings interact with an odd look on her face. It took her a second to notice Peter’s attention on her. “We have an agreement, but I would never be partners with the likes of you. I'll tell the buyer we're on our way,” she sniffed and looked around at the rest of the ship. “And Quill, your ship is filthy.” Shaking her head, she walked off to the stairs and Galaxy, with a shrug, followed her.

* * *

**The Kyln**

Ronan glared at the guard before him, thoroughly disgusted. The Kyln was a prison; it had one job and it failed! How could the Nova Corps be so incompetent that their high-security prison couldn’t even keep in its prisoners?

Without fully thinking, he slammed the end of his Warhammer down on the ground. The guard in front of him flinched, pulling himself into a tight ball. “I swear, I don't know where they went! I swear!”

Ronan crossed his arms. He believed the man, but that didn’t mean he had like what he said…or fully agree. “Are you sure?” He asked, taking a step closer to the now whimpering man. “Because if you’re not-“

“Ronan, the Nova Corps sent a fleet to defend the prison,” Nebula warned as she walked over, not even pausing at the sight in front of her.

Ronan turned, the guard in front of him momentarily forgotten. “Well, then, send Necrocraft to every corner of the quadrant. Find the orb,” he swallowed hard and then shook his head. “Find _her_ first. By any means, any price.”

Nebula nodded, her arms crossed behind her. “And this place?”

“The Nova can't know who or what we're after. Cleanse it!”

* * *

“Heads up! We're inbound,” Rocket yelled from the front of the ship.

The shout made Galaxy, Gamora, Groot, Drax, and Peter all join with Rocket to watch as the ship flew slowly towards Knowhere, which, Galaxy realized with a hard swallow, looked like a giant severed-head.

“Woh,” Peter breathed out, leaning forwards.

“What is it?” Drax asked, actually not sounding enraged for once.

“It's called Knowhere. The severed head of an ancient celestial being. Be wary headed in, rodent. There are no regulations whatsoever here,” Gamora warned, her eyes not on Rocket but to the front.

Nodding to himself, Rocket slowly and very carefully flew the ship under Gamora’s careful instructions. Galaxy looked out the window with an odd mixture of awe and disgust as they flew through one of the eyes to reach an area clearly dedicated to mining. Rocket carefully landed the ship and they all headed out.

“Hundreds of years ago, the Tivan Group sent workers in to mine the organic matter within the skull. The bone, brain tissue, spinal fluid. All rare resources, highly valued in black markets across the galaxy. It's dangerous and illegal work, suitable only for outlaws,” Gamora explained, crossing her arms as she looked around.

Peter just smirked and nudged Galaxy. “Well, we come from a planet of outlaws. Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde and John Stamos.”

“It sounds like a place which I would like to visit,” Drax said, somehow managing to sound happy while glaring at Galaxy – likely because she had been mentioned in conjunction to something Drax liked.

Peter, choosing to the ignore the glaring, just wrapped his arm around Galaxy and gave Drax a wide smile. “Yeah, you should,” he agreed, making Galaxy snort at the mental picture of Drax walking around on Earth.

Gamora started to walk off, and the rest of the group followed, the twins taking the back. Out of nowhere, a group of dirty-faced children surrounded them. “Excuse me,” the one directly in front of them said.

“Watch your wallets,” Peter warned to Galaxy and the rest of the group even as the kid asked, “Can you spare any units?”

“Get out of here,” Rocket snapped at the kids.

Like pins, they went flying, disappearing to the edges once more. One of them, however, lingered to look up at Groot with wide eyes. Kneeling down, Groot held out his hand and grew a flower which he plucked and gave to her. He rejoined the group, the action going almost completely unnoticed had it not been for Galaxy turning to see it.

The group continued to walk until a tall building, clearly a bar, came into their view. They were headed towards it, making even Rocket pause and curl his snout in distaste. “Your buyer's in there?”

“We are to wait here for his representative,” Gamora answered, frowning at the building as well.

The door was kicked open as a bouncer dragged a yelling man out. “Get out of here!” The bouncer yelled, shoving the other man hard.

“This is no respectable establishment. What do you expect us to do while we wait?” Drax asked, crossing his arms.

* * *

Drax, Rocket, and somehow, Groot found a way to spend their time while they drank – excessively drinking. They had all split up in the bar, Peter going to refuel his ship, the three idiots went to the bar and then the bidding table, and Galaxy and Gamora went outside to the balcony.

“He’s probably already gone through the Kyln,” Galaxy guessed out loud as she looked out at the stars, her mind on Ronan. “He won’t be happy with them.”

Gamora nodded. “I’m sure he’ll be furious.”

“And worried,” Galaxy added on, biting her lip.

Gamora crossed her arms. “How come you mean so much to him?”

Galaxy didn’t answer for a long time, allowing a silence that was very present to grow between the two. Finally, she answered with, “It’s because of how Krees are. They’re very violent in every aspect of life except for with the person they’ve Chosen.”

She chanced a look over to Gamora, who was looking at her intently, her face unreadable. Taking a deep breath, she continued on. “Generally two Kree meet each other through their parents and later become Chosens at their parents’ pushing. Ronan’s father decided to do the same with him and me.”

“It’s an arranged marriage?” Gamora asked, frowning.

Galaxy nodded. “In a way. But then Ronan rose through the Kree ranks and became an Accuser. His father pushed for him to marry another Kree but he refused. The Kree in general are very proud and saw my existence as an insult. Ronan and I left and took his father’s ship with us.”

“You went willingly?”

“Of course! It was either die or go with Ronan.” Galaxy crossed her arms almost defensively before she sighed and shook her head. “When word got back that the Nova Corps had killed his father in the war, he was outraged. He wanted to sign up and fight so badly, but he didn’t want to leave me in a ship waiting for him to come back. I think he would have been happy letting the war run its course, but when the Kree and the Nova Corps ended the fighting, he went back to protest the decision.”

“And that didn’t go well,” Gamora stated bluntly.

Galaxy sighed and nodded. “He killed his first Nova that night.”

She turned away from Gamora took look back out at the stars. She could still remember that night so clearly…the way Ronan had smiled, had taken up his father Warhammer. He had had her present, telling her that this was good and right and…

There was a loud cough behind her, making her jump and turned to see her brother, frowning at her. “You alright?” He asked, taking a step towards her, “You look pale.”

Galaxy nodded rapidly. “Fine,” she muttered, trying to give him a smile. “How did fueling go?”

Still not looking fully convinced, Peter walked over so that he was on the left side of Galaxy. “You wouldn't believe what they charge for fuel out here,” he informed her with a shake of his head. “I might actually lose money on this job.”

Giving him a light pat on the arm, Galaxy looked over to Gamora, who had started to grow anxious. “How long did it take you to fill up your ship?” Galaxy asked Peter.

“About twenty minutes, why?”

Galaxy just nodded to Gamora in answer. The green-skinned woman shook her head with a sigh. “My connection is making us wait.”

Peter shrugged. “It's just a negotiation tactic. Trust me, this is my specialty. Where yours is more, ‘Stab, stab. Those are my terms.’” While Gamora grinned, Peter turned to Galaxy, what’s your tactic?”

Galaxy smiled. “Kick and then run until Ronan can deal with them,” she said fondly.

Peter frowned at her. “So how serious are you and this Ronan guy? Do I need to give him the ‘older brother talk.’”

Galaxy shrugged lightly. “You can if you want to. I think he’ll just laugh it off.” She leaned over lightly and grabbed the Walkman from Peter. When he reached for it, she slapped his hand. “It’s my turn.”

Sighing, Peter shook his head, turning as Galaxy placed the headphones on and pressed the play button. Gamora, who had been watching them speak, frowned at the Walkman. “Why would you risk your life for that?”

Peter swallowed hard before he was able to answer. “My mother gave it to Galaxy and me. My mom liked to share with us all the pop songs that she loved growing up. I happened to have it on me when we were...the day that she...You know, when we left Earth.”

He was surprised that Gamora didn’t laugh at him. “My father did not do the same,” she said with a bitter smile.

“Thanos?” Peter asked, his brow furrowing.

“He's not my father,” Gamora corrected with a snap in her voice. “When Thanos took my home world, he killed my parents in front of me. He tortured me, turned me into a weapon. I thought Ronan would be different but when he said he was going to destroy an entire planet for Ronan, I...I couldn't stand by and...” her voice trailed off as she shook her head.

“Does Galaxy know?” Peter asked, lowing his voice as he risked a glance behind him to see his sister oblivious to the conversation he was having.

Gamora frowned. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I believe he might be trying to hide from her so she can’t stop him.”

Frowning, deeply, Peter crossed his arms. He didn’t talk for a long time, not until Gamora broke the silence by gesturing to the Walkman in Galaxy’s hand. “What do you do with it?”

Peter shrugged. “Do? Nothing. You listen to it. Or you can dance.”

Gamora stiffened. “I'm a warrior and an assassin. I do not dance,” she said in a very formal, very strict voice.

Peter arched an eyebrow. “Really? Well, on my planet, there's a legend about people like you. It's called _Footloose.”_

“Galaxy has never mentioned this lesson,” Gamora said with a frown.

Peter crossed his arms and huffed. “She never liked Kevin Bacon,” he muttered more to himself than to Gamora. “Anyways, in this legend a great hero named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that dancing, well...it's the greatest thing there is.”

“Who put the sticks up their butts?” Gamora asked, her eyes wide at the mere thought.

Peter blinked. “What? No, that's just a...” he tried to remedy.

“That is cruel,” Gamora said with a shake of her head.

“It's just a phrase people use,” Peter corrected. He sighed and tapped Galaxy on the shoulder, motioning for her to take off the headphones. With a frown she did.

“I was actually enjoying that,” Galaxy protested lightly.

Rolling his eyes, he handed the Walkman to Gamora. He watched as she careful placed the headphone on her head. Leaning forwards he pressed the play button.

Galaxy frowned lightly at the intimate scene. She knew Gamora had mentioned that Peter had a reputation, which had then be backed by his own words when he was trying to calm down Drax. She crossed her arms and arched her brow, making Peter roll his eyes at her. Shaking her head, she headed back into the bar, looking around for the others.

Unsurprisingly, they were still betting on the races and drinking heavily. Galaxy just watched them idly, not truly paying attention until she heard Drax say to Rocket in a loud, clearly angry voice, “You do not know what you’re speaking about, vermin!”

Rocket had attacked Drax, lunging at him with claws outstretched. Groot had quickly joined him, swatting at Drax with little twigs whenever Rocket was thrown to the floor.

Galaxy hurried over, trying to grab Rocket before he could leap at Drax again. Instead her hands got hit by Groot, the twigs burning and making her hold onto her the palms of her hands as if they had been burnt. “Seriously?” She snapped at Groot, who just shrugged as he walked over to Drax to give him the same twig-lashing.

Glaring, she rubbed her palms together, more than grateful when Peter and Gamora entered the fight and were able to break the men apart, Gamora literally dragging an enraged Drax off of Groot.

“Stop it!” she yelled over to Rocket. Ignoring her, Rocket took out his blaster and pointed it at Drax, about the fire at the man.

“Woh! Woh! What are you doing?” Peter intervened, looking like he was about to tackle Rocket.

“This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!” Drax yelled, glaring at Rocket.

“That is true!” Rocket yelled back.

“He has no respect!” Drax continued.

“That is also true!”

As Rocket started to mess with his blaster, Peter quickly shouted, “Hold on! Hold on!”

Rocket glared at him, actually starting to sniffle as if he was about to cry. “Keep calling me vermin, tough guy! You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!”

Galaxy stepped next to her brother, crossing her arms. “You’re just drunk. No one is laughing at you,” she told him bluntly.

Rocket shook his head. “He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does! Well, I didn't ask to get made! I didn't ask to be torn apart, and put back together, over and over and turned into some...some little monster!”

“Rocket, no one's calling you a monster,” Peter said in a soft voice, his expression morphing from frustration and annoyance to pity.

“He called me vermin! She called me rodent! Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots to your frickin' face!” As Rocket made to shoot Drax once more, Peter jumped in front of the blaster, trying to make himself as big and tall as possible to effectively block Drax.

“No, no, no, no! Four billion units! Rocket! Come on, man. Hey! Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich.” Peter said.

For a long moment, Rocket stared down at his blaster. Finally, he sighed and placed the gun back in its rightful place. “Fine. But I can't promise when all this is over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks.”

Peter threw up his arms in exasperation. “See? That's exactly why none of you have any friends! Five seconds after you meet somebody, you're already trying to kill them!”

Removing himself from Gamora’s grip, Drax shook himself off and glared at the group. “We have traveled halfway across the quadrant, and Ronan is no closer to being dead.” Sending two very vicious glares to Gamora and Galaxy, Drax turned and stormed out.

Peter turned, as if to call after the man, but Galaxy quickly placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t,” she said, shaking her head when he turned to her. “He won’t help with actually selling the orb.”

The now five-some grouped together, looking around at the bar. It was still in full swing, as if their fight had never happened. No one was paying any attention to them, which meant no one saw the pale pink female alien approach them, though she stood out in her white outfit.

“Milady Gamora, I'm here to fetch you for my master.” She called to Gamora in a light, airy voice.

Gamora turned and then, after assessing the alien in front of them, nodded. When the alien turned and started to leave the bar, Gamora followed her. The others looked at each other briefly before they too followed.


	8. Chapter 7

The group of Gamora, Galaxy, Groot, Peter, and Rocket followed the female alien to their seller’s house – though house really wasn’t an appropriate name. Galaxy would have called it a zoo. It had the same smell as the one she and Peter had gone to as children. She looked over at him to see him making the same expression he had then – a mixture of awe and disgust.

Moving her gaze from her twin, Galaxy looked around to see alien species in the cages around them. Some were just sitting there, gazing out of the glass without expression or even awareness of their arrivals. Others jumped to their feet and made a rush for the glass only to be stopped by chains or painful shocks. Mainly, though, the species just watched them.

“Okay, this isn't creepy at all,” Rocket said, his sarcastic voice echoing off the cages and amplifying it, making it echo around them.

“We house the galaxy's largest collection of fauna, relics, and species of all manner,” the pink alien said proudly. She paused to push a button, opening the doors to let them into a room with more cages – though these had mainly humanoid aliens in them. In the center, behind a desk, a man with eccentric white hair stood, an oily smile flirting across his lips when they arrived.

“I present to you, Taneleer Tivan, the Collector,” the female alien said in an awed voice. Galaxy watched as she walked away, going to the wall to wait.

Ignoring the woman, Gamora walked over to the Collector with bold, powerful steps. The Collector did the same, the two stopping in the middle. “Oh, my dear Gamora. How wonderful to meet in the flesh,” he greeted. Picking up one of her hands, he brushed his lips across it.

“Let's bypass the formalities, Tivan,” Gamora said in a steely tone, her hand falling limply from his. “We have what we discussed.”

But the Collector was not paying attention. He had, instead, turned his gaze to Groot, who was gawking around behind Rocket. “What is that thing there?”

“I am Groot,” Groot responded proudly.

The Collector gaped at Groot, his eyes widening. “I never thought I'd meet a Groot. Sir, you must allow me to pay you now so that I may own your carcass. At the moment of your death, of course.”

“I am Groot,” Groot replied.

Rocket sent him a glare and rolled his eyes. “Why, so he could turn you into a frickin' chair?”

Raising an eyebrow at Rocket, the Collector turned to Groot. “That's your pet?”

Enraged, Rocket was already reaching for his gun as he snapped at the Collector, “His what?!”

Though the Collector just chuckled at the open threat, Gamora still stepped in, pulling the man’s attention to herself once more. “Tivan, we have been halfway around the galaxy, retrieving this orb,” she reminded him in a firm voice.

Nodding, the Collector turned away from Groot. “Very well, then. Let us see what you brought.”

Gamora looked over to Peter, who glanced briefly over at Galaxy to give her an apologetic smile as he made to hand the orb off, only for it to fumble and drop to the ground. He winced as he bent down and picked it up to show it to the Collector once more.

The Collector smoothly took the orb from Peter and walked over to behind a desk, giving the group little choice but to follow him. Galaxy couldn’t help but frown when the Collector stroke the orb in an almost lover-like fashion. “Oh, my new friends. Before creation itself, there were six singularities,” he explained.

He placed the orb in a middle of a machine, which started to twist it slowly apart, giving the Collector ample time to continue talking. “Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots. Infinity Stones. These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength. Observe.”

He nodded to a video, which started to play clips of people doing horrible things while their weapons or hands were encased with glowing lights of purples and greens and blues.

“These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field,” the Collector said rather proudly.

Peter winced and, without thinking about it, stepped towards Galaxy in a protective way. “There's a little pee coming out of me right now,” he admitted in a shaky voice.

“Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they were quickly destroyed by it,” the Collector continued, completely ignoring Peter. The clips of a group of people in ceremonial grab all holding hands as they were ripped apart by a purple light backed up his statement.

The room was bathed in the same purple light as the clips as the machine finished pulling the orb apart, revealing a stone bathed in purple light. Galaxy took a step forwards, fascinated by it. Around her, the others did the same…except for Rocket.

“Blah, blah, blah. We're all very fascinated, whitey. But we'd like to get paid,” he snapped, crossing his arms as he glared up at the Collector.

“How would you like to get paid?” The Collector asked lightly.

Rocket rolled his eyes. “What do you think, fancy man? Units!”

“Very well, then.” The Collector turned away to go and get the units while the others all stepped back to join Rocket.

No on truly noticed anything amiss when the Collector ordered Carina to stand back, though Gamora did look up to watch the woman briefly before she turned her gaze back to the collection of animals around them. Galaxy just figured that she was fascinated like they had been.

 But then something went very, very wrong. Carina started to run towards the stone, her fast footsteps causing everyone to turn to her. The Collector, who had been looking at her all along, couldn’t seem to react fast enough as the woman shouted, “I will no longer be your slave!”

Just as the Collector yelled, “No,” Carina grabbed the stone. Instantaneously, she and the room around them exploded in a wave of purple light that was seared into Galaxy’s eyes. She felt Peter grab her and pull her under a table, holding her as close to him as possible. She was vaguely aware of Gamora on her other side and Rocket getting carried out by Groot.

They only emerged when the room around them was no longer shaking. The trio could only look at the destruction in horror. Their were dark purple marks where Carina and the Collector had been standing. The cages were all shattered, revealing dark purple marks as well or very frightened animals to scared to leave.

Gamora was the first to recover from the sight. She sprinted over to the orb and closed it, sealing the Infinity Stone once more.

“What the fff...?” Peter asked, his voice trailing off as he looked over at Galaxy as if she had any answers.

No one answered him. Instead, they walked out in silence.

It was only when they were outside did Gamora speak. “How could I think Tivan could contain whatever was within the orb?” She snapped in frustration, shaking her head at herself.

Rocket and Groot, seeing them emerge, rushed over to them, though Rocket hung back when he caught sight of the orb in Gamora’s hand. “What do you still have it for?” he asked.

Peter crossed his arms. “Well what are we gonna do, leave it in there?” he protested.

“I can't believe you had that in your purse!” Rocket cried out, turning to Peter.

“It's not a purse, it's a knapsack!”

Ignoring their fighting, Gamora turned to Galaxy. “We have to bring this to the Nova Corps. There's a chance they can contain it.”

Galaxy bit her lip and crossed her arms. She was more than thankful when Rocket saved her from saying anything by protesting loudly, “Are you kidding me? We're wanted by the Nova Corps! Just give it to Ronan!”

“So he can destroy the galaxy?” Peter snapped.

“I would be able to make sure he didn’t,” Galaxy pointed out. When Peter turned her, incredulous, she frowned at him. “You have never met Ronan, Peter,” she reminded.

“But I have,” Gamora cut in. “Galaxy, while I know Ronan would listen to you what happens if there’s someone _you_ want to destroy? Ronan would do anything for you, including destroying the galaxy if you asked.”

Seeing that Galaxy was about to protest, Gamora turned to Peter. “We have to go back to your ship and deliver the stone to Nova.”

Peter nodded slowly, pretending not see Galaxy’s face fall at his agreement. “Right, right, okay. I think you're right. Or we could give it to somebody who's not going to arrest us, who's really nice for a whole lot of money. I think it's a really good balance between both of your points of view.”

“You're despicable,” Gamora spat, shaking her head.

“I…” Peter started to say, trying to come up with an argument against what Gamora had said.

“Dishonorable. Faithless!” Shaking her head, she turned and started to walk off, only for her to look up and stop in the middle of stride. “Oh, no,” she said with shake of her head. She turned on her heel to glare at Galaxy. “How could you?!”

“I don’t have anyway to call him!” Galaxy protesting, motioning to the ships in the sky.

Ronan had caught up with them at last, and judging by the fighter ships around his, he was less than pleased with the situation.

Even though Galaxy had missed Ronan, she knew that this was _not_ a good time for him to be here. Not with Gamora betraying him and Drax’s want to kill him.

She frowned, looking around at their group, which was minus a crazy person. “Peter, where’s Drax?” she asked.

Peter looked around as well, a frown forming as he realized that Drax had not been waiting for them outside. “You don’t think-“ he started, only to be caught off by an all too familiar cry.

“At last! I shall meet my foe and destroy him.”

“You called Ronan?” Peter snapped, glaring at Drax.

As the ships from Ronan landed, yet another familiar voice rang out. “Quill! Don't you move, boy!”

“Yondu?” Galaxy asked Peter, turning to see the familiar blue-skinned man with a group of Ravagers behind him.

Peter could only nod. He glanced at Gamora, who was already tensing to run and then to Galaxy. “We should go,” he suggested.

Glancing between Yondu and Ronan’s ship, Galaxy ran with her brother and Gamora, trusting that Ronan could quickly deal with Drax.

* * *

Galaxy, Gamora, Peter, Groot, and Rocket were breathing hard by the time they reached the mining pods. Gamora and Peter easily got into one while Galaxy frowned, her brow furrowing.

“I don’t know how to fly,” she admitted.

Peter gaped at her. “Twenty-odd years and you don’t know how to _fly?”_ he asked.

Galaxy nodded slowly. Peter looked at the controls and shook his head. “These aren’t simple,” he warned.

Very slowly, she looked back the way they came. “Yondu wouldn’t recognize me,” she said in a soft voice. “Plus Drax…”

Peter started to get up from his ship, realizing what Galaxy was doing. “You can’t!” He protested.

But she did. She turned away from Peter and started to run back the way they had come. Peter made to go after her, but Gamora yelled over to him, “We’ve got to go!”

Shaking his head, Peter sat down in the ship and closed it, taking flight along with Gamora and Rocket.

* * *

Galaxy was able to easily dodge the Ravagers and made it back to Ronan just in time to see Drax try to knife him.

“Drax no!” Galaxy called, running towards the battle even as Ronan dodged the knife.

Ronan looked up at her voice, his eyes widening a fraction. He made a small gesture with his hand – to anyone else it would have looked like he was flexing, but to Galaxy the meaning behind it was clear. He had gestured behind him, at his ship, in a clear order to go inside it.

But Galaxy couldn’t, because Drax had heard her yell and had turned his glare and anger to her. “You still side with him?” he yelled, just before he started to charge towards him.

Galaxy stared at him. “Seriously?!” When that did nothing to deter Drax, Galaxy started to sprint to the side towards Ronan. If she could just get behind him…

She felt Drax hit her hard and she landed with a rasping noise as all the air was pushed from her lungs. She tried to get up, but then Drax headbutted her and everything went dark.


	9. Chapter 8

Galaxy woke with a low groan, her eyes flickering open only to squeeze tightly shut once more. Her head felt like a fly was pounding against her temple; the pain made her grind her teeth. She sat up slowly, her eyes cracking open to see Ronan curled up next to her, sound asleep. She smiled slightly at the familiar sight.

Gently, she got out of the bed, continuously glancing behind her to see if Ronan was still sleeping. She lightly stepped to the adjoining master bath and started to shower, waiting until the steam was starting to fill the room before she stepped in.

* * *

After showering and dressing, Galaxy walked down the corridors of the Dark Aster, the ship humming as it moved through space. She found herself pausing at Gamora’s door, staring at the dark wooden paneling. Without thinking about it, she pushed the door open and stepped inside, the door clicking shut behind her.

Gamora had never decorated her room. The lights, which turned on with motion, were set to the lowest setting possible, casting shadows around the room. On the bedside table, a hologram ball sat. Galaxy picked it up, feeling a grimy layer of dust coating the outside. The hologram ball could be used for entertainment like TV or music as well as a communicator. Gamora had never used it.

The bed itself was impeccably neat, the sheets pulled taunt. When Galaxy sat down on them, the sheets hardly twitched, let alone pulled out of where they had been tucked in.

For a moment, Galaxy tried to imagine herself as Gamora. She closed her eyes, trying to feel what Gamora would have felt in this room. It hurt, knowing that Gamora had betrayed Ronan, and Galaxy, by taking the orb. It hurt even more knowing that the betrayal was planned for in advanced.

Gamora had had to find a buyer, had had to contact the buyer, and then had had to find out a way to go on the mission to collect the orb. Before Peter had stolen it, all of those tasks had been checked off. She had hidden it from everyone, including Nebula.

The door to the room slowly opened, and Galaxy gave a small smile to Nebula. She started at her presence but quickly stiffened to a nonchalant manner. “Thanos would like to speak to you and Ronan,” she informed her.

Galaxy nodded, frowning. “Are you alright?” she asked.

Nebula looked down at her hand. “I am fine,” she dismissed. She looked up and gave Galaxy a small glare. “I am not going to betray you like _she_ did.”

“I wouldn’t blame you,” Galaxy said with a shrug. “You have every right to betray Thanos, which would mean betraying us.”

“There are ways to only do one. Gamora did not see that in her _pride,”_ Nebula spat the last word, her mechanical voice cracking. She turned away from Galaxy to look at the room around them; she shook her head. “I will do what Gamora failed to do; I will remain loyal to Ronan while getting my revenge on Thanos.”

She turned to Galaxy and gave her a stiff nod. “I will go inform Ronan of Thanos’ call.”

Before Galaxy could reply, Nebula stalked out of the room. Galaxy frowned after her. She picked up the orb and rotated it in her hands slowly before she too got up and left the room. The door closed behind her with a firm click.

* * *

Galaxy stood off screen, her eyes firmly on Ronan as he placed a call to Thanos. Nebula stood next her, her arms crossed as she rolled her eyes. “Your anxiety is unneeded,” she muttered.

Galaxy rubbed at her arms and swallowed hard. “Considering what Ronan is doing, I think it is fully needed.”

The call connected. Galaxy watched as Ronan took a respectful stance as he addressed Thanos. “The orb is in my possession, as I promised.” He nodded to Korath who held up the orb for Thanos to see.

“Bring it to me,” Thanos commanded.

“Yes, that was our agreement.” He held out his hand and Korath deposited the orb, allow Ronan to roll it around in his hands. “Bring you the orb, and you will deal Xandar for me. However, now that I know it contains an Infinity Stone, I wonder what use I have for you.”

Galaxy could hear the rumble from Thanos as he likely leaned forwards in his rock chair. With the way the screen was set up, the action would cause Thanos to tour over Ronan, and Thanos knew that. “Boy, I would reconsider your current course,” Thanos ground out even as Ronan opened the orb to look down at the Infinity Stone inside of it. The familiar purple light bathed Ronan in a way that made Galaxy sick to her stomach.

“You cannot! Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe,” Korath gasped in sudden warning. He took a hesitant step towards Ronan, as if to knock the stone away, but a look made him back down.

“Not anymore.” Ronan picked up the Infinity Stone. Immediately, Galaxy felt as if the room was bathed in the same destructive energy as before. Only this time, it wasn’t being used to destruct, but to create. The stone was pushed into Ronan’s Warhammer, making the stick glow with the purple light.

His action of rebellion done, Ronan turned to Thanos. “You call me ‘boy!’ I will unfurl one thousand years of Kree justice on the galaxy! Then, Thanos, I'm coming for you.”

The call cut out. All was still on the ship until Nebula stepped forwards, her head cocked to the side like a curious puppy. “You're going to kill my father?” she asked slowly, her voice raspy.

“You dare to oppose me?”

“You see what he has turned me into. You kill him, I will help you destroy a thousand planets.”

Still off to the side, Galaxy rubbed at her arms once more. She looked nervously back where the screen had hung in place and frowned.

* * *

It was later when Galaxy brought her worries to Ronan. She had written them down in a bullet-pointed list and had read them to herself in the mirror. Even when she was walking to Ronan’s room to speak with them, she was going over it in her head, wanting to make sure her explanation was clear.

She paused for a brief moment before she stepped in, allowing herself a moment to breath and focus. She stepped forwards and the door slid open. Ronan was sitting in his chair, his Warhammer propped up against the wall, humming with the energy from the stone. Even just sitting there, it made Galaxy feel nauseous.

She slowly sat down across from him, purposely putting the Warhammer behind her. Ronan looked up at her and started to smile, only to frown as he saw the look on her face. He tilted his head, clearly preparing to ask a question but she held her hand up, stopping him.

“Why are you keeping it?”

Ronan bit his lip. “You always knew I was going to keep it,” he pointed out.

Galaxy shook her head. “That was before I knew _what_ it was and what it _does.”_ She took a deep breath, calming herself as much as she could. “You weren’t there when that thing was used. It took apart the entire room! It was horrible! Things were vaporized right where they stood.”

Agitated from the memory, Galaxy got up and started to pace. “We have no use for that type of destruction – you, have no use for that type of destruction. I know the plan was to threaten Nova with it, but now," Galaxy turned to Ronan and shook her head. “This plan will only make us targets and for a very good reason.”

Ronan got up from his seat and walked over to the Warhammer. He picked it up, his back to Galaxy. “The plan is the only thing saving my people from destruction,” he said in a low voice. Nova has more power than we do, more weapons.” He turned to Galaxy, still idly holding the hammer, “Would you not do everything for your people?”

Galaxy crossed her arms and shifted defensively. “My people are on this ship, Ronan. Getting rid of that hammer would be doing something for that hammer.”

“What would you have me do with it? Give it to Nova like Gamora wants?”

“Destroy it! Throw it into a black hole and never get it! I am not trying to betray you like Gamora, Ronan. I am _not_ your enemy.”

Ronan set down the hammer gently. “I have forgotten myself.” He turned to Galaxy and gave her a careful look. “Forgive me, I did not mean to imply that you are trying to betray me. I know that you are loyal to me.”

Galaxy nodded. “I know,” she murmured. “Whatever that Infinity Stone is, it does more than just physical damage.”

Ronan sighed. “I can’t just get rid of it – at least not before I deal with Nova.”

“I know,” Galaxy repeated. “But they will be warned. My brother was very against the idea of using it.”

“Would we be able to contact him before hand? Just tell them that we are going to use it warn it?”

“He would never believe that.”

“If we hover over Nova then we will be vulnerable to attack, an attack that _must_ be held off.”

Galaxy bit her lip. “I know it is risky,” she admitted slowly.

“If it makes you more comfortable then I’ll risk it.”


	10. Chapter 9

Galaxy stood next to Ronan, her arms crossed. “Are you sure this will work?” she asked.

“It has to work,” Ronan pointed out.

Galaxy bit her bottom lip and turned to Nebula. “Anything we should change?”

Nebula stepped forwards and tilted her head to stare down at the written out plan. She frowned and tapped a bullet point. “I don’t like this one.”

Galaxy turned the sheet, reading the plan Nebula had disliked and frowned. “You don’t like that we don’t destroy Peter and his group?”

“That includes Gamora. We should not let people who betray us get rewarded.”

Galaxy bit her lip and glanced over at Ronan. He was considering what Nebula said with a half-frown on his face. He looked over at her briefly before he sighed and shook his head, turning to Nebula. “We will need all the help we can get when Thanos turns against us.”

Nebula nodded slowly and then turned to look at one of the assistants. “ETA?” she snapped.

“Twenty minutes,” the assistant answered promptly.

Nodding once more, Nebula addressed Ronan sharply. “I will make sure the shielding is intact.” When Ronan inclined his head in dismissal, Nebula turned on her heel and stalked from the room.

Galaxy looked down at the plan, her eyes traveling it but she took nothing in. She glanced down at her hands and winced when she saw they were shaking.

“Peter will be furious,” she said in a soft voice. “I doubt he want to stay in contact.”

Ronan took one of her hands and gave it a squeeze. “It’s not too late to back out.”

“You know that isn’t true,” Galaxy said with a shake of her head. “Thanos will hunt us with or without that stone. At least this way we can possibly receive protection from Nova.”

Ronan squeezed her hand once more. “You need to contact him,” he reminded.

Removing her hand from his, Galaxy picked up a communicator and pressed the call button. She could hear the buzzing as it connected to Peter’s and then waited for him to approve, or deny, the call.

There was a click and then, _“Who is this?”_

Galaxy swallowed hard and, using the precious seconds she could, tried to compose herself while giving a thumbs up to Ronan. If he noticed her hand shaking, he did not comment on it. “Peter, it’s me,” she said in a far calmer voice than she had expected.

When there was a long pause from Peter’s end, she rushed to say, “Don’t hang up!”

_“I’m not planning on it,”_ Peter said, his voice flat.

Glancing over at Ronan, Galaxy started her prepared speech. “We both know that Ronan and I have the infinity stone. We’re not giving it over to Thanos, but we need a reason to give it over to Nova.”

_“Is Yondu’s Ravager fleet, the Nova fleet, and us not enough of a reason?”_

“’Us?’”

_“Rocket, Drax, Gamora, Groot, and myself,”_ Peter elaborated. His breath hitched and he added in a much softer voice. _“You can still join us.”_

“I don’t think Drax would like that,” Galaxy pointed out, her voice shaking enough to make Ronan catch her gaze. When she gave him a small smile, he relaxed. But he still felt the need to take her hand and give it a squeeze.

_“I can make Drax like it. You’re my sister and I want you safe, which means not on the side of a genocidal maniac.”_

“Peter, I’m an adult,” Galaxy said slowly. “I can, and will, make my own choices.”

_“So can I,”_ Peter pointed out, just a hint of a challenge in his voice. _“If you and Ronan hand over the stone then Nova will let you go free.”_

“We need more than that. We need protection from Thanos.”

She could hear a noise on Peter’s end that sounded suspiciously like Gamora hissing something. Peter’s voice came in a soft reply, too soft for Galaxy to make out. After a long time, during which Galaxy presumed Gamora was replying to Peter, Peter let out a heavy sigh. _“Nova refuses the deal. They’re willing to take the stone by force if necessary.”_

“Will you help them?”

_“Will you give the stone up on Nova’s terms.”_

“No.”

_“I have no choice, Galaxy. I don’t trust Ronan with the stone which means I don’t trust you.”_ He paused and then added in a grudging tone, _“Good luck.”_

The connection fizzled out. Galaxy dropped the communicator into her hand and stared at it for a long moment. She placed it back onto the table and looked at Ronan. She didn’t even have to do anything for Ronan to know. He stepped forwards and hugged her tightly, holding her for a few precious moments.

“I’ll inform Nebula that we are doing Plan B,” he told as he stepped away, but he didn’t leave her alone. “You didn’t fail,” he said, making sure he was looking at him. “We knew it would be a long shot.”

Galaxy nodded slowly and, somehow, managed to give Ronan a small smile. “I know,” she said.

Looking like he desperately wanted to say something else, Ronan stared at her for a long moment before he nodded to himself and headed off, leaving Galaxy to watch him go.

* * *

Plan B started similarly to Plan A, with a call from Galaxy. Only this time, she hadn’t been chosen because she had a close connection to someone, but because her connection to their call was slightly more positive than Nebula’s or Ronan’s.

“Nova Corps, this is Galaxy on the Dark Aster,” Galaxy said for her greeting as soon as the communicator’s call was accepted. “I have a deal for the infinity stone.”

_“Would you mind holding?”_

Galaxy blinked at the question. “I guess,” she said with a shrug. Immediately, a click sounded followed by pleasant sounding music. When Ronan looked over at her, she mouthed that she was ‘on hold,’ making Ronan frown.

After a couple minutes, the communicator clicked once again. _“Please still be there,”_ the same voice from before whispered.

“I am,” Galaxy informed him, just a hint of a bite in her voice. Their plan did not have much time for them to be sitting, waiting for some person to run all over Xandar. She heard quite a few voices at once, all raised in volume. There was a loud rustle that made her move the communicator away, wincing.

Finally, a crisp female voice spoke into the communicator. _“This is Nova Prime.”_

Galaxy breathed a sigh of relief, closing her eyes briefly to thank whatever she could think of. Giving Ronan a smile, she replied back to Nova Prime with, “Nova Prime, this is Galaxy on the Dark Aster. I have a deal for the infinity stone.”

_“Why should we trust a deal from Ronan?”_ Nova Prime asked. _“He has threatened our very way of life for years!”_

“Because this deal gives you far more than it will give us.”

_“What is your deal?”_

“We will give you the infinity stone in exchange for protection from Thanos.”

There was a snort, though it held no amusement, from Nova Prime. _“Do you think we are stupid? It is well known that Ronan is working for Thanos. Why would you ever need protection from him?”_

Galaxy sighed heavily and looked over at Ronan. He gave her another smile, but it fell at the worried look on her face. He got up and walked over, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze. That was enough to give her strength to respond to Nova Prime’s scoff.

“Ronan and I have betrayed Thanos. He wanted the infinity stone and to give it to him would destroy the rest of the universe.” Galaxy took a deep breath as she mulled over her next words carefully. “Ronan and I…we don’t want to live hunted for the rest of our lives. We just want peace.”

Nova Prime sighed on the other end. _“That’s all well and good, but how can we trust you two? Ronan has been killing our people!”_

“That is true,” Galaxy relented, “but you’ve must have noticed he’s stopped in the past few months? Just the other day we released a man who had broken into our ship with the aim to kill us.”

There was a pause on the other end, and Galaxy knew she was checking the records, looking to see if there even was such a man. _“How do we know this isn’t a trick? We know what the infinity stone can do if it touches Xandar’s soil.”_

“I am willing to come down by myself. The stone will be a protective case and will not react. I will give it to you, and only you. If it makes you more comfortable I am willing to be lowered into Peter Quill’s ship so that the Dark Aster never touches the ground.”

There was a very, very lengthy pause. Long enough for Ronan to whisper if they had replied, only for Galaxy to shake her head in a clear ‘no.’ As the pause continued, Galaxy considered asking if they were still there, but just when she was opening her mouth to ask, Nova Prime responded. _“Quill’s ship will be under the Dark Aster in three minutes.”_

“Does that mean you accept?” Galaxy asked, rushed.

_“It means we are willing to negotiate.”_

Before Galaxy could protest, the call ended. Swallowing hard, she turned to Ronan. “Peter will be here momentarily,” she started. “I am to get on his ship and go down to speak with Nova Prime with the infinity stone.”

Ronan frowned. “That does not sound like an acceptance.”

“It was not one,” Galaxy agreed. “But,” she added quickly with a raise of her hand to stop Ronan from protesting, “it will likely be the best we can get.”

Ronan nodded slowly, though the frown on his face was clearly one of distaste. “What if they trap you?”

“I trust Peter. He wouldn’t betray me.” Galaxy picked up the case holding the infinity stone, an involuntary shiver going through her as she felt the box vibrate. Shifting it to one hand, she used the other to wrap around Ronan’s neck and pull him close. “I promise I’ll be okay. And if not then you have my full permission to break me out of custody.”

Hearing him chuckling, Galaxy leaned in and gave Ronan a soft kiss. “I will be back,” she promised.

And then she stepped away, walking towards the pod that would allow her to join Peter’s ship just as her brother pulled up and connected to it, likely instructed by Gamora.

Taking a deep breath, she gave Ronan one last smile and then she stepped into the pod and through it to Peter’s ship. The door slid solidly behind her. She looked around the ship, just making out Rocket’s tail from around the corner, clearly piloting the ship with Groot next to him, his head ducked to be able to stand in the small space.

Her eyes moved to the other side of the ship where Drax was sitting in the corner, his arms crossed as he gave her a glare with just a hint of a snarl on his lips. Her eyes moved past him and to Gamora, who just frowned and her. Finally, her eyes landed on her brother.

“Do you have it?” he asked, not even bothering to give her a smile.

Stiffening, Galaxy moved almost robotically to hold up the box with the infinity stone in it, trying very, very hard to not show how much Peter’s reaction to her hurt. She knew he could hold a grudge, but that had always been to others, never to her.

It hurt even more when Peter just nodded just as stiffly she felt and turned to the pilot’s chair. Galaxy looked after him, unsure whether she should follow him or stay by the door. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and looked over at Gamora, seeing her just shake her head.

“I would do anything to make things right with Nebula,” she murmured with a small frown. She looked over at Galaxy with a pained expression. “Make things right,” she said in an even softer voice.

Galaxy swallowed hard and, without Ronan to squeeze her hand, she squeezed her own. It did not bring anywhere near the same comfort for her. Nodding to herself, she walked down and stood behind Peter’s chair. She could tell he knew she was there, he had stiffened and had shifted in his seat.

“There are chairs back there,” Peter said without looking at her.

“I know,” Galaxy replied. “I just felt more comfortable watching. I still get motion sickness.”

Peter tried, and failed, to stifle a snort. “Well if you’re going to throw up then we have a bathroom.”

“Better than the parking lot of a hospital.”

The reminder not lost him, Peter shook his head. When their mother had been moved into the hospital permanently, their uncle had taken them in and would drive them everywhere, including the hospital. Galaxy had had the bright idea, one afternoon, to do her homework in the car, only to get horribly sick and had pulled open the door and puked out of it.

“It’s not like you have any homework here,” Peter said lightly without thinking about it before he remembered that he was supposed to be angry with his sister.

But it was very hard not to see the smile on Galaxy’s face and return it. So he looked down, focusing on the screen far more than he actually needed to.

“When did you learn how to pilot?”

“Yondu taught me for my fifteenth birthday.”

Galaxy slowly sat down behind him, a small frown on his face. She looked down at the box in her hands feeling it thrum with power that made her near nauseous. “I hate this thing,” she muttered bitterly.

Peter looked down at the box and shrugged. “You could have just left it with us,” he pointed out.

“Thanos would have hunted us down,” Galaxy countered with a shake of her head. “With this Ronan and I won’t be hunted. Even Thanos would face failure by the Nova Corps, especially without this stone.”

“Do you know what his plan is?”

Galaxy shrugged. “Destroying the galaxy? He never told Ronan what it was, only that he would aid him in getting ride of Xandar if we gave him the stone.”

Looking like he wanted to argue, Peter chose instead to say, “You should probably find a seat. We’re going to be landing soon.”

Rising slowly to her feet, Galaxy gave Peter a small smile. “Hopefully this will be over soon.”

She turned and walked to a chair next to Gamora and gave her a grateful smile. At least if everything went horribly wrong with Nova Prime, she had been friendly with her brother one last time. And, on the off chance everything went perfectly, then she had hopefully created a small bridge for their once strong relationship to be repaired.


	11. Chapter 10

Galaxy walked through the hall of Xandar’s main building, her heart beating very, very fast – to an almost unhealthy agree. Nova Prime’s personal guard was all around her, and Peter and his group were behind them with a much smaller group of guards. In her hands was her bargaining chip, the only thing that would keep her, and the man she loved, from an extremely painful death: the infinity stone.

The more she held this object, packed away in the protective case as it was, the more she was certain it could feel her emotions. It had sped up its vibration and the box had warmed to a slightly uncomfortable degree, enough to make her want to drop the box. If Galaxy didn’t know any better, she could imagine that it _wanted_ to be used to destroy people.

There mere thought made her grip the case even tighter, despite the pain she felt when she did so.

Two of the guards ahead pushed open the double doors they were fast approaching, allowing Galaxy to get her first glimpse of Nova Prime’s war council. The tables had orange and blue screen hovering above them, displaying the Dark Aster and a picture of Thanos with his Warhammer and a picture of herself next to Thanos.

As she stepped into the room, Galaxy was able to see the huge screen hovering, waiting to be called upon. There were a couple of more pictures in the room and, oddly enough, a diagram of two humanoid figures – a male and a female.

Nova Prime, an elderly woman, looked up from her circle of advisers when she stepped in. Her eyes immediately zoned in on the box Galaxy held. “Is that it?” she breathed.

Galaxy nodded, but didn’t hold it out. “You said you wanted to negotiate,” she reminded the woman.

Nova Prime took a step forwards, her eyes still on the box. “Would it be safe to open? I do not want to be tricked.”

Galaxy frowned in hesitation, there was something about the entire room that made her want to shield the box and run with it, despite how much she wanted it far away from her. It was an odd enough impulse that she almost denied the request, but then she focused back on what was placed on her shoulders, and that was enough to open the box and show Nova Prime the protective shell around the stone.

Placing the box carefully down, Galaxy held the protective shell and slowly twisted it open, allow Nova Prime to see just enough of the stone before she quickly snapped the shell back on. Behind her, she could Peter and Gamora sighing in relief, a relief that she shared.

“I am surprised you are willing to part with it,” Nova Prime pointed out as Galaxy put the sphere back into the case that was still on the table. “I would have expected Ronan to want to use any means necessary to destroy Xandar.”

“It is far less trouble for us to have,” Galaxy explained. “Plus we would not have the means to protect it from Thanos while Xandar does.”

Nova Prime nodded and then broke into a smile. “I have spoken to my advisers and we are willing to except your deal, so long as Ronan or you do not touch another Xandarian.”

Galaxy blinked, openly staring at Nova Prime. “Really?” She asked, her voice squeaking up to a higher octave.

Nova Prime just gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Thanos is a threat to the entire universe if he intends to collect the infinity stones. I will not see that happen.” There was pause and then a glint of something akin to amusement appear in Nova Prime’s eyes. “I believe there is an Earth saying you would be familiar with, ‘the enemy of thy enemy is thy friend.’”

Galaxy frowned slightly. “How did you know I was from Earth?”

Nova Prime just pointed to the two humanoid models of the male and female. “We have your DNA results from when you were imprisoned. Your mother was Terran but your father,” Nova Prime shook her head.

Galaxy looked over to Peter, hoping he would know the truth only for him to look just as stunned as he did. “You mean we’re not Terran?”

“You are half Terran,” Nova Prime agreed. “Your father, well, he's something very ancient we've never seen here before.”

Galaxy crossed her arms, starting to feel very, very uncomfortable with the entire situation. Her mother had claimed that their father was a man from space, a claim that had been a sign of her cancer…hadn’t it? When she looked over at Peter’s face, it was clear he was having the same troubling thoughts.

“We can run more tests and see if we can come up with something,” Nova Prime offered as she took in the twin’s faces. “Perhaps there’s a creature we’ve forgotten that’s in our database.”

Galaxy just bit her lip. “May I think about it?” she requested. When Nova Prime nodded, she relaxed. As odd as it was, she did not know if she wanted to know who her father was. Part of her was concerned that her mother had been right, that her father _had_ been a man from space, and that was terrifying. What did that mean for the rest of her sickness?

“If that is all,” Galaxy started slowly, “I would very much like to return to Ronan. He’ll be getting worried soon.”

Nova Prime’s eyes widened at the mere idea of a _concerned_ Ronan coming down to Xandar in the Dark Aster. She quickly nodded. “I will have some guards escort you out.” She turned away to order two of the guards, murmuring their instructions.

“Oh and box that thing up!” Nova Prime added to one man. “Put it somewhere safe.”

“I know exactly where,” the man responded.

Something in his voice made Galaxy turn back around. No one else was watching the man as he leaned forwards, grabbed the protective shell, and started to open. Just as Galaxy made a half-choked scream, the man’s fist tightened around the now released infinity stone with a yell of, “THANOS!”

The room exploded in a bright purple light, sending the occupants flying hard. The heat was unbearable to the extreme and Galaxy could feel the burns setting and becoming too much…it was a like when she had placed her hand in the oven while her mother had been baking cookies. She screamed, or at least tried to, but the heat seemed to steal her voice away.

And then it stopped, leaving Galaxy gasping for breath. She looked around to see the others on the ground, breathing just as hard as she was. Some of the guards, the one closest to the blast, had been vaporized where they stood, but Nova Prime had been spared from that fate and was lying under an upside-down table, her eyes closed.

Galaxy could see a purple light starting to fracture the ground around them from where the man had died from holding it. She started to crawl forwards, feeling the ground shifting and making a loud creaking noise as if it was an old ship sinking. She could feel the thrum of the stone calling her and, without even thinking, she grabbed onto the stone, her grip tightening even as she gasped out in pain.

There was a sudden presence behind her, a familiar one. She didn’t turn around even as Peter yelled, “What are you doing?!”

His hand joined her, clamping down around it. “Let go!” He ordered, a wild look in his eyes.

“I won’t let you do this yourself!” Galaxy ground back. She could feel the others approaching.

“Hold hands!” Gamora cried out as she grabbed onto the stone as well. Her body started to convulse almost instantly, but when Galaxy’s hand shot out, it acted almost like a grounder.

Drax joined the mix as well as Rocket and Groot, though Rocket started to yell at the tree-creature that he would explode.

Instead, Groot grabbed with his other hand onto the protective shell and brought it close even as his body started to snap apart. 

“Groot!” Rocket cried out, tears starting to run from his eyes and down his snout.

Groot gave Rocket one final look, and then he pressed the shell around the stone just as he exploded into a shower of…flowers?

But Galaxy didn’t have enough time to think. She was wheezing, curling into a ball even though the ground hurt the burns. She could feel her eyes sliding close from exhaustion and she could hear a very familiar voice yell, “Galaxy! Galaxy please be okay!”

Her eyes cracked open briefly, just in time to see a purple figure approaching, and then all went dark.

* * *

Later, Galaxy would hear the rest of the story from Ronan. How he had come down in a shuttle, had seen the wreckage of the building, had seen the purple cracks forming in the ground, and how he had sprinted into the building just in time to see Galaxy pass out in the horrible state that she was.

Nova Prime had thankfully recovered and had promised that they would _still_ be protected, that they had held up their side of the deal. In time, her council would become less angry, she promised. They saw the attack as something planned by Ronan and Galaxy and Thanos, but Nova Prime had insisted that she could make them see reason.

Peter and his group had remained in contact, and slowly the two siblings were relearning each other. They had only met up last week to open the last present their mother had given to them, her brother had hidden both backpacks successfully from Yondu for years.

The two sat, side by side, and stared down at the presents sitting innocently in their laps.

Without speaking, both started to open the present, being as careful as possible to not tear the wrapping. There was silence, except for paper crumbling, for a long moment until Galaxy let out a little, “Mom!”

Peter looked over at her to see her reading a note, similar to the one he had in his own present.

_‘Ariel, I know these last few months have been hard on you and your brother. But I’m going to a better place and I will be okay. And I will always be with you. You are the pearl of my life. My precious daughter. My little angel. Love, mom.’_

Galaxy swallowed hard and looked over at Peter, only for him to do the same action. She looked down at the rest of the present and felt her throat tighten with unshed tears as she saw a Walkman with two cassette tapes, ‘Awesome Mix 1’ and ‘Awesome Mix 2.’ When Galaxy looked over at Peter, she could see that he too had gotten the second mix tape.

Wordlessly, Peter got up and placed the cassette tape into the player, his eyes closing as ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ started to play.

But that had been several weeks ago, and Galaxy had not heard from Peter since then. He had said he would off adventuring and that he would try to leave messages, but Galaxy knew that Peter was not great with friends. Sure, he could make them with ease, but keeping up with them and putting in the work was hard for him.

That was okay though, Galaxy knew she would see her brother again. Besides, now she was able to spend time with Ronan, like they were now. Both were just sitting on a row of steps, her head on his shoulder and their hands connected. Ronan had rigged up a sound system as a surprise for her and she closed in her eyes as ‘Fooled Around and Fell in Love’ played over the speakers.

This, this was pure serenity, and Galaxy would not have it any other way.


End file.
